Published on August 20, 2014
Like most fans of Test cricket (a tribe dwindling by the day but there are still a few of us around!) I had had high hopes for India’s Test tour of England this summer. The nightmare of the 2011 England visit (when India’s ageing warriors were blanked 0-4) seemed to be well in the past; the current team seemed to be the best available and gave the appearance of bursting with youthful talent (at least on the batting front). There were some worries about the bowling, but then when have India ever played Tests without people saying it is impossible for our fellows to bowl the opposition out twice in five days? So that was a normal concern. India, anyway, never expect to win many Tests on the trot – we are more used to the unexpected victory abroad.
The latest series got off to a good start with a draw in the First Test and then came that stirring Indian victory at Lords when the much-maligned Ishant Sharma suddenly realised he was a fast bowler and also that he had a surface before him suitable for his brand of shortish, bouncy deliveries. England’s hook-happy batsmen capitulated in an afternoon and India suddenly became the favourites in the series.But from the next Test onwards, India’s performance deteriorated by the day and everything that could go wrong, did. The slip fielding, never that good after the departure of the likes of specialists like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag, went from bad to worse – routine catches were being put down almost in every innings and even fine fielders like Ravinder Jadeja seemed to develop butter fingers while posted there. Jadeja’s astonishing drop of Alastair Cook in Test 3 was probably the turning point of the series – the under-fire English captain not only battled back into some kind of form but his captaincy also started yielding positive results overnight.
By the final Test, India’s batsmen had become sitting ducks, especially when confronted with the high-quality swing-and-seam bowling of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Young stars Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli seemed clueless and huge flaws in their technique were being exposed every time they walked out to bat. Opener Murali Vijay, who had started the series with a big 100, faded away though he at least tried to hang in there. The batsman who seemed to have the best temperament for Tests abroad, Ajinkya Rahane, also started falling to low scores. Veteran Gautam Gambhir, brought in for the out-of-sorts Shikhar Dhawan, presented the worst sight for Indian fans – the poor man seemed to have no idea why he was in England in the first place. With back-to-back Tests being scheduled to pack in as many games as possible, there was no possibility for any of these batsmen to analyse their weakness and iron out kinks, even if they were keen to do that.
What of the Indian bowling? Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s Man of the Series, bowled manfully but we all know he is no Mitchell Johnson. And it was evident that his fitness and frail physique were not going to help him to excel in five Tests in a row – by the time the last match came around, Kumar looked totally exhausted and run-down. Ishant Sharma missed two Tests after his Lords heroics but he provided a silver lining, overall. Mohammed Shami, after an impressive debut at home against the West Indies last year, was a disappointment and was dropped early on. Varun Aaron bowled with fire and pace but never looked like running through the opposition. The saddest department was India’s spin-bowling – the land that once boasted of the greatest slow bowlers in the game now had the limited and one-dimensional Jadeja as their main weapon – a baffling choice especially when a specialist spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, was available. By the time the latter was selected in the playing eleven, the series was well and truly lost.
What of MS Dhoni, the skipper who becomes a master strategist in the ODI and T20 arenas but appears as clueless as ever in Tests? Dhoni batted with guts, taking blows on his body, and showed everyone how a bloody-minded attitude can sometimes help an average batsman to score runs in hostile conditions. But his wicketkeeping skills have declined badly and the less said of his captaincy skills, the better. The worst parts of Dhoni’s leadership skills were all on display this time also - like his reliance on bits-and-pieces cricketers like Stuart Binny and Jadeja who are both not Test class, odd fielding positions, lack of imagination and a defensive mindset – I can go on. The time has come to strip Dhoni of the Test captaincy and just let him be a senior member of the team. But that will not happen, unless the man himself decides to step aside. Nobody is convinced Dhoni likes or enjoys playing Test cricket, which is another huge problem.
So what can be done to fix India’s abysmal overseas record in the last few seasons? I have no doubt in my mind that the advent of T20 cricket and the IPL has changed the entire mindset of many of the younger players. None of them seem to have the attitude or the hunger needed to do well in five-day cricket. The Indian teams of the past may have been far less talented but they have always shown more fighting spirit unlike this sorry bunch. While T20 cricket has helped the evolution of the game in some ways (fielding, running between the wickets and general fitness have all improved out of sight in the last five years), there is ample evidence that it has also lead to a drastic drop in interest in the longer format of the game, both among the younger players and also in the so-called “fans”.
The sheer amount of money on offer in the IPL and also the fact that the nature of the T20 format enables even average players to shine make it very evident that the main motivation for India’s modern-day stars cricketers is never going to be five-day cricket (even though none of them will ever admit this in public!). One also always get the feeling these days that the current breed of Indian cricketers do not care much about the traditional format of the game the way the likes of Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly did till they retired – and that is another prime reason that leads to lack of application and proper preparation to succeed in Test matches.
South Africa, England, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka all have their top players playing T20 cricket too but none of them have devalued the Test game the way our cricketers have done and that’s so sad to see. Test cricket’s pre-eminence has to be brought back in India – in other words, it has to be made “cool” again. For that to happen, India have to start winning abroad on a regular basis – as we know, every Indian loves a winner and they will flock to watch the Test team play at home too if it starts doing well again overseas – maybe not in the massive numbers seen for the IPL matches. It’s such a pity to see Test matches being played in front of empty stands even in India’s top venues – that’s what happens routinely nowadays. But does anyone care?
Cricketing great Sunil Gavaskar made a good point the day after India had lost the latest overseas series – he urged India to stop playing Test cricket for a while. I could not agree more with Sunnybhai. His suggestion was to send India “A” teams abroad for our young cricketers to get used to different conditions – such tours are there even now but not in sufficient numbers. Only after the youngsters improve drastically in all sorts of situations should India start playing Tests again – a worthy idea but Gavaskar himself admitted there is virtually no chance of India stopping playing Test cricket even for a while – there is too much money at stake.
In Gavaskar’s time, most top Indian cricketers used to find time to play at least a couple of seasons of county cricket in England and would come back with their skills enhanced. When the same point was put to Dhoni, he made it clear that the packed schedule for modern-day Indian cricketers made the county option virtually impossible for them. Too much cricket is killing the game in India – the top players are involved in some format or the other all through the year, thus making them stale and making them far more vulnerable to injuries. Look at how Australia manage their international players – it has just been reported that their stars have come back refreshed after a four-month break from international duty. India’s young millionaires can only dream of such an off-time period. And even if they take such a respite on their own accord there is always the fear they would lose their places in the team. Out of sight, out of mind – that is their concern. So they all play on and on and on – it reminds me of Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour”!
So here are plenty of issues for India’s cricket administrators to chew on – sadly, as most observers have noted, the moment India start winning a couple of ODIs abroad, all the travails of the current Test team will be forgotten in a hurry. We all know how short the Indian public’s memory is. A Test series win on helpful pitches and familiar conditions at home will be enough to put all the above issues on the backburner – till the next overseas debacle. And the same vicious cycle will keep repeating each time India go on a foreign tour.
Like most fans of Test cricket (a tribe dwindling by the day but there are still a few of us around!) I had had high hopes for India’s Test tour of England this summer. The nightmare of the 2011 England visit (when India’s ageing warriors were blanked 0-4) seemed to be well in the past; the current team seemed to be the best available and gave the appearance of bursting with youthful talent (at least on the batting front). There were some worries about the bowling, but then when have India ever played Tests without people saying it is impossible for our fellows to bowl the opposition out twice in five days? So that was a normal concern. India, anyway, never expect to win many Tests on the trot – we are more used to the unexpected victory abroad.
The latest series got off to a good start with a draw in the First Test and then came that stirring Indian victory at Lords when the much-maligned Ishant Sharma suddenly realised he was a fast bowler and also that he had a surface before him suitable for his brand of shortish, bouncy deliveries. England’s hook-happy batsmen capitulated in an afternoon and India suddenly became the favourites in the series.But from the next Test onwards, India’s performance deteriorated by the day and everything that could go wrong, did. The slip fielding, never that good after the departure of the likes of specialists like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag, went from bad to worse – routine catches were being put down almost in every innings and even fine fielders like Ravinder Jadeja seemed to develop butter fingers while posted there. Jadeja’s astonishing drop of Alastair Cook in Test 3 was probably the turning point of the series – the under-fire English captain not only battled back into some kind of form but his captaincy also started yielding positive results overnight.
By the final Test, India’s batsmen had become sitting ducks, especially when confronted with the high-quality swing-and-seam bowling of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Young stars Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli seemed clueless and huge flaws in their technique were being exposed every time they walked out to bat. Opener Murali Vijay, who had started the series with a big 100, faded away though he at least tried to hang in there. The batsman who seemed to have the best temperament for Tests abroad, Ajinkya Rahane, also started falling to low scores. Veteran Gautam Gambhir, brought in for the out-of-sorts Shikhar Dhawan, presented the worst sight for Indian fans – the poor man seemed to have no idea why he was in England in the first place. With back-to-back Tests being scheduled to pack in as many games as possible, there was no possibility for any of these batsmen to analyse their weakness and iron out kinks, even if they were keen to do that.
What of the Indian bowling? Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s Man of the Series, bowled manfully but we all know he is no Mitchell Johnson. And it was evident that his fitness and frail physique were not going to help him to excel in five Tests in a row – by the time the last match came around, Kumar looked totally exhausted and run-down. Ishant Sharma missed two Tests after his Lords heroics but he provided a silver lining, overall. Mohammed Shami, after an impressive debut at home against the West Indies last year, was a disappointment and was dropped early on. Varun Aaron bowled with fire and pace but never looked like running through the opposition. The saddest department was India’s spin-bowling – the land that once boasted of the greatest slow bowlers in the game now had the limited and one-dimensional Jadeja as their main weapon – a baffling choice especially when a specialist spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin, was available. By the time the latter was selected in the playing eleven, the series was well and truly lost.
What of MS Dhoni, the skipper who becomes a master strategist in the ODI and T20 arenas but appears as clueless as ever in Tests? Dhoni batted with guts, taking blows on his body, and showed everyone how a bloody-minded attitude can sometimes help an average batsman to score runs in hostile conditions. But his wicketkeeping skills have declined badly and the less said of his captaincy skills, the better. The worst parts of Dhoni’s leadership skills were all on display this time also - like his reliance on bits-and-pieces cricketers like Stuart Binny and Jadeja who are both not Test class, odd fielding positions, lack of imagination and a defensive mindset – I can go on. The time has come to strip Dhoni of the Test captaincy and just let him be a senior member of the team. But that will not happen, unless the man himself decides to step aside. Nobody is convinced Dhoni likes or enjoys playing Test cricket, which is another huge problem.
So what can be done to fix India’s abysmal overseas record in the last few seasons? I have no doubt in my mind that the advent of T20 cricket and the IPL has changed the entire mindset of many of the younger players. None of them seem to have the attitude or the hunger needed to do well in five-day cricket. The Indian teams of the past may have been far less talented but they have always shown more fighting spirit unlike this sorry bunch. While T20 cricket has helped the evolution of the game in some ways (fielding, running between the wickets and general fitness have all improved out of sight in the last five years), there is ample evidence that it has also lead to a drastic drop in interest in the longer format of the game, both among the younger players and also in the so-called “fans”.
The sheer amount of money on offer in the IPL and also the fact that the nature of the T20 format enables even average players to shine make it very evident that the main motivation for India’s modern-day stars cricketers is never going to be five-day cricket (even though none of them will ever admit this in public!). One also always get the feeling these days that the current breed of Indian cricketers do not care much about the traditional format of the game the way the likes of Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly did till they retired – and that is another prime reason that leads to lack of application and proper preparation to succeed in Test matches.
South Africa, England, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka all have their top players playing T20 cricket too but none of them have devalued the Test game the way our cricketers have done and that’s so sad to see. Test cricket’s pre-eminence has to be brought back in India – in other words, it has to be made “cool” again. For that to happen, India have to start winning abroad on a regular basis – as we know, every Indian loves a winner and they will flock to watch the Test team play at home too if it starts doing well again overseas – maybe not in the massive numbers seen for the IPL matches. It’s such a pity to see Test matches being played in front of empty stands even in India’s top venues – that’s what happens routinely nowadays. But does anyone care?
Cricketing great Sunil Gavaskar made a good point the day after India had lost the latest overseas series – he urged India to stop playing Test cricket for a while. I could not agree more with Sunnybhai. His suggestion was to send India “A” teams abroad for our young cricketers to get used to different conditions – such tours are there even now but not in sufficient numbers. Only after the youngsters improve drastically in all sorts of situations should India start playing Tests again – a worthy idea but Gavaskar himself admitted there is virtually no chance of India stopping playing Test cricket even for a while – there is too much money at stake.
In Gavaskar’s time, most top Indian cricketers used to find time to play at least a couple of seasons of county cricket in England and would come back with their skills enhanced. When the same point was put to Dhoni, he made it clear that the packed schedule for modern-day Indian cricketers made the county option virtually impossible for them. Too much cricket is killing the game in India – the top players are involved in some format or the other all through the year, thus making them stale and making them far more vulnerable to injuries. Look at how Australia manage their international players – it has just been reported that their stars have come back refreshed after a four-month break from international duty. India’s young millionaires can only dream of such an off-time period. And even if they take such a respite on their own accord there is always the fear they would lose their places in the team. Out of sight, out of mind – that is their concern. So they all play on and on and on – it reminds me of Bob Dylan’s “Never Ending Tour”!
So here are plenty of issues for India’s cricket administrators to chew on – sadly, as most observers have noted, the moment India start winning a couple of ODIs abroad, all the travails of the current Test team will be forgotten in a hurry. We all know how short the Indian public’s memory is. A Test series win on helpful pitches and familiar conditions at home will be enough to put all the above issues on the backburner – till the next overseas debacle. And the same vicious cycle will keep repeating each time India go on a foreign tour.