What went wrong??

What difference a month makes. On 21st July, we had an Indian bowler bouncing out English batsmen in their own backyard. Fast forward to 17th August, and India had just succumbed to their third worst defeat in 80 years of test cricket. And yes, it took England just 2 and a half days to inflict this humiliation. Even after accounting for England’s performance in test cricket over the last year( humiliation by Johnson and the loss to Sri Lanka at home), no one expected India to win the series. But what hurt fans the most, was the abject surrender and the complete lack of fire in the belly. Apart from Dhoni, there was simply no one else who wanted to fight it out in the middle. A five test series separates the men from the boys, and with this performance, Kohli and co. just showed that they are yet to make the switch from prodigious talents to world beaters. The reasons for this reversal in fortune in the last month can be attributed to the four Ts- Technique, Temperament, Tactics, and Team Selection

In typical English conditions, and with two of the greatest modern day exponents of swing and seam bowling in the opposing ranks, the Indian batsmen were simply not technically equipped to deal with it. This new generation have dealt with  pace and bounce pretty well in both South Africa and New Zealand. But the swinging and seaming ball was a different test altogether. And by the middle of the test series, serious chinks were exposed in the techniques of both Pujara and Kohli. Yes, at times Anderson’s outswing deliveries looked nothing less than fast leg breaks and were totally unplayable. But the Indian batsmen, without the footwork to deal with the swing, kept repeating the same mistakes and got out. And once you are exposed in the middle of a five match test series, you simply have no place to hide. To counter the swing, you need a definite forward movement. But what we got to see was someone like Gambhir trying to play by jumping around in the crease. India may have got Rahul Dravid as a batting consultant, but this tour just made everyone realize that players like Dravid come once in a generation. And Pujara is no Dravid yet, not by any stretch of imagination.

Yes, it might be impossible to sort out the technical flaws in the middle of a tour. But what the Indian batsmen also lacked was the temperament and tenacity to fight it out. And this ,in spite of the fact that they could look at their captain for inspiration. Dhoni knows very well that he is not technically equipped to deal with Andersen and Broad in these conditions. He was taking blows on his body and never looked comfortable at the crease. But he fought it out and scored four half centuries. The tendency to give up also showed in the field. Bowlers bowling no balls and fielders dropping catches regularly are cardinal mistakes when you were defending 150 odd in the first innings. On the third morning of the fifth test match, England were scoring at more than 8 runs an over. The Indians looked completely mentally disintegrated by then. It was no surprise at all that they got bowled out within 30 overs when they eventually came out to bat.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a very different and much better understanding of the game than most cricketers and cricket experts. Ishant Sharma bouncing England out at Lords was Dhoni’s brainchild. Most of the times his weird looking tactics pay off, especially in T20 and ODI matches( Remember Joginder Sharma and Ishant Sharma winning us the World T20 and the Champions Trophy). But when you start a session with Stuart Binny bowling, when the opposition is already 100 runs ahead with 5 wickets in hand, there is something wrong. And it was not one off. Time after time, we saw weird field placements. A  leg slip had become customary. Basically, time and again, Dhoni was setting fields for bad bowling. The negativity started showing from the third test onwards when Jadeja was bowling with a 7-2 leg slide field on day 1. These fancy tactics might help you win a close limited overs match. But you can never win a test series abroad with these negative tactics. 

Leaving out Umesh Yadav from the touring squad was a mistake that the selectors committed right at the outset. And with all due respect to Bangladesh, a six wicket haul for Stuart Binny against them should not have got him to the squad. Funnily enough, he made the 11 in three test matches. After Kapil Dev, India has been desperately searching for a seam bowling allrounder. But Binny is definitely not the answer to that search. When you bowl dollies at 120 odd kmph and the captain bowls you for 30 odd overs  in three test matches combined, you can only be in the side if you are amongst the top 6 batsmen in the country. And Binny comes nowhere close. Jadeja’s selection outside the subcontinent also defies logic. Ashwin is a much better batsman as well as bowler. Instead, it was Jadeja who played ahead of Ashwin in the first 3 test matches.  The selection of Gambhir was also another case in point. Dhawan might not have got many runs, but he was at least trying to get forward, and not jump around at the crease. Dropping him in favour of a completely out of form and confidence shorn  Gambhir did India no favour. 

With Australia coming up in less than 4 months, the road ahead will only get difficult. This team has the talent, and should get better with experience. “Don’t be jealous of the IPL”, was Dhoni’s response to a question regarding the IPL being a cause of this debacle. If only Dhoni and his boys show this aggression and swagger in the field, Australia 2014-2015 will definitely be much better than England 2014.