P Muraleedharan
What the Indian team lacked Down Under was motivation and fighting spirit; the BCCI, Srikkanth and Dhoni must come up with answers for the terrible debacle
“There's nobody on the house-tops now--
Just a palsied few at the windows set;
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles' Gate--or, better yet,
By the very scaffold's foot, I trow.”
‘The Patriot’
Robert Browning
Well, obituaries of the Indian team are being written at a furious pace all over the cricketing world. The men in blue, the toast of the nation just half-a-year ago, have become the butt of jokes and ridicule now post their abject surrender to the Kangaroos in the Gavaskar-Border Trophy test series. They have turned into what most of their 'illustrious' predecessors (The same guys who pontificate from their commentary pulpits) were: flat track bullies who fail to get their act together when confronted with pitches with a hint of grass. The batting titans, comprising Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Sehwag, who had scripted the most glorious era in Indian cricket, have been brutally cut to size and calls for the heads of some of them are getting louder by the day.
Before coming to the merits of this savage attack, I would like to ask this question: Is there such a huge chasm that separates the India team from teams like Australia, England and South Africa? If you go just by statistics, it may seem so. For, the Indians have been white washed in England and Australia. But, if one is willing to look beyond the statistics, he would find that the Indian team was as good as its rivals when the tours began. The main difference between them was in fighting spirit and mental strength; the obvious lack of these attributes led to an all pervasive decline in standards as the tours progressed. There was no captain worth his position or coach at hand to lift the sagging morale of the team and get it out of the woods.
Take the England tour, for instance. In the first test at Lords, the hosts were six for 107 in the second innings when Matt Prior and Stuart Broad joined together for an unbroken seventh wicket partnership of 162 runs. If India could have bowled them out for a total less than 200, India stood a real chance of winning the test. Zaheer Khan's injury, who could bowl only 13.3 overs in the first innings, might have blunted the visitors' bowling attack. Anyway, India lost by 196 runs.
In the second test, things were slightly different. India took a healthy first innings lead of 68 and then allowed England to pile up a huge second innings total of 544. When the third test arrived, it looked as if India had accepted defeat even before the first ball was bowled. And it was soon all over. India got whitewashed 4-0.
In Australia, the pattern repeated. In the first test at Melbourne, both teams were even in the beginning and it looked as though Indians were bolstered by the return of Sachin and Zaheer. India restricted the Aussies to 333 in the first innings and was cantering to a huge lead at three for 214 when Tendulkar fell for 73. What followed was shocking as the Indians left the crease in a hurry to end the innings at 282. A commendable bowling performance led by Zaheer and Umesh Yadav got the Aussies the second time out for 240 and all the Indians needed to post a lead in the series was to score 292 runs on a friendly pitch. But that was not to be. The famed batting line up caved in under pressure and India lost by 122 runs. (That was the lowest margin of defeat in the entire series!) From the second test onwards, Indians lost the plot completely and accepted defeat as their natural destiny.
Some say, the obsession with Sachin’s 100th century played a part in diverting the focus of Team India. But, the fact remains that Sachin was the only batsman who was at home at the crease and he was the top run-getter for the country. Dravid’s wall has been breached and it seems there is a huge gap between his bat and front pad. Laxman, who turned around the test fortunes of India with astounding performances against the Aussies, seems like a magician who lost his art in the middle of an act. As for Sehwag and Gambhir, it is almost two years since they could come up with a match winning opening partnership. The top three run getters in the team are--Sachin, Virat Kohli (The bristling young man came up with a fighting century in the series) and, you may not believe this, R Ashwin! Well, that sums up the horrible Indian outing at the Australian crease this winter.
India could have reversed the tables in England and Australia if it had shown greater resilience and fortitude in times of crisis. However hard one may try, there are times when things don't come one's way. But one has to keep trying hard and think positively. What we have been seeing was precisely a lack of this attitude. At times, it seemed that this team even did not want to make a try. Indian teams were known for their ability to bounce back after losing the first tests. The teams led by Ganguly and Kumble had done that. But this team lost four straight tests in Australia, something India had not done for the past one decade.
And, that is where skipper Dhoni and Coach Fletcher have been found wanting. They just went through the motions and mouthed inanities when some tough questions were hurled at them. Of course, Dhoni does not deserve to be in the national team if his cricketing skills alone are counted. Neither his batting nor keeping would ensure his place in the eleven. He is in the test team because he is the skipper. He is a very useful and successful captain in one-dayers and Twenty20. But, surely, not for tests. As for Fletcher, the less said is better. This is his 11th test defeat (out of 12!) Down Under as a coach. He is not a patch on his predecessor Gary Kirsten and has been a spectator when the team was lurching from one defeat to the other. Remember, the team Kirsten handed over to him was the World Champions!
The selectors, led by 'admirable' Srikkanth, also failed to come up with sensible answers for the horrifying debacle. Why was this super talented team so under motivated? Did the proliferation of international matches, especially the IPL, dulled the fighting spirit of the team? And, last but not the least, the question arises as to whether the Fabulous Four has become a dead weight on the shoulder of the Indian team. There are no single word answers, indeed. Surely, there were visible symptoms of the malaise setting in months ago. India's lacklustre performance in the Caribbean was a case in point. The team had seemed lethargic and spiritless even then. But, our selectors had much more important things to dwell on than these silly diversions then.
Now is the time for answers. If the BCCI, selectors and team management cannot come up with credible answers and a plan to rejuvenate the team, it would not be long before the Indian cricket would gasp for breath and survival. But, the richest sports body in the world would put all the blame at the door of the players and go on as nothing had happened. That was what they did after India came back after losing to England 4-0. This time, things would not be that easy. So, they would like to axe some senior pros like Laxman and Dravid from the team. But, they don’t have the guts to bell the cat. So, they plant stories in the media saying that the two players would retire from cricket at the end of the tour. Then, they would replace Dhoni with Sehwag, may induct youngsters like Rohit Sharma, Cheteswar Pujara and Suresh Raina in the team. Sadly, these quick fix solutions won’t work even for the short term!
Back to senior players. Not many cricketers had served Indian cricketers as the Fabulous Four has done in the last one decade. They had been exemplary ambassadors of India on and off the pitch. The present crisis in Indian cricket is not a result of what they had done and they are being pilloried for the wrongs committed by the selection committee and the BCCI. They should be allowed to retire from the game with dignity; it would be painful to see them walking back with their heads down.
