TEAM INDIA slow-‘cooked’ by You know who……….

In the events after euphoric World cup win, Team India in a state of mental and physical fatigue are relinquishing their status as ‘Top Test Cricketing Nation’. Before we go on analyzing the rise, peaking and a minor dip in Team India’s progress, let me give e brief overview of point system. (For complete explanation of it please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Test_Championship#Historical_rankings). I’m of belief that with good system in place for cricket, i.e. Ranji trophy, Tours of Team A to different countries, Emerging players tours, Team India will remain competitive in test cricket world for years to come. It just so happened that this team couldn’t survive the intense grueling of test cricket in England’s backyard.

Coming back to the point system for test cricket, it is relatively new and one that was held coveted by ‘The Great Australian Team’. However, after the ‘Mass Exodus’, an unlikely Team SA grabbed the top spot for a brief period of 4 months. The mantle was then passed onto Team India for the next two years. If you look at the history since then, since 2008 Team India has not lost a series either home or away and has played the likes of all the other top four teams (Australia, SA, Srilanka and England), which lead to Team India’s rise to the top. During the same period (except for England) the other teams have either lost their away series or only drawn on the home series. Since the point system clearly favors a team that is consistently in ‘NET POSITIVE’ side of the results, Team India benefitted from their schedule, more like stars aligning right. The one series that did matter was away series with Team SA which they have efficiently held to a draw. They were never facing a red-hot team (like current Team England) nor had a grueling season. Moreover, from the scheduling point of view, Test match was more like a make up for lost time between ODI’s and T20’s. Though the ‘pundits’ applaud test cricket as pinnacle form of cricket, Team India’s schedule says otherwise.

Since 2008, the accidental coincidence with boom of T20, Team India hardly has any warm up practice games for test matches. If you look at the warm up time, most of the franchise teams have about a week to ten days to acclimatize to the rigors of T20. On the other hand, Team India has only 5 days for bilateral series? In long run this has to change. It would be better for Team India (Paraphrasing Saurav’s famous words “Team India is a slow starter”), to have a tour match with at least one red-hot county team. The lack of practice is/was/will be a recipe for a major setback. The attitude of “slow starters” will always be tested when India met an in-form team.

Here is how Mr. Thorn (aka Flower) plotted the much taunted batting lineup. That Z. Khan pulled out the first day was a mere luck in his favor. If you look at last 10 series, the batsman that performed the most (highest run scorers in series) were Sachin, Gambhir, Sehwag (very recently Dravid). It was imperative for Team Pommies to figure out these stalwarts. Test 1, Gambhir in close in field, hit him out. Might cost a wicket in that process, but at least it will hamper him. Blow to Gambhir was inevitable, given the shots that KP and Prior intended on playing they were poised to induce maximum pain to the solid opener. If the gamble pays off, then bowlers get into rhythm early and make clear inroads into the fragile lower spine of Indian Batting. You may call it unlucky, but it was a clear plot which truly worked in England’s favor. Given that Sehwag was out for first two and didn’t have match practice for others, the sole effort was with short stuff in swinging conditions. Dravid though was the hard part, he was clearly not part of the plans, since they were going for win and Dravid’s mindset of playing for a draw was not in direct conflict of their plans.

In the bowling front, inexperienced line up with little match practice, no strong back ups and swinging conditions meant a long uphill battle. The nail in the coffin was Bhajji pulling out of the series which left a wide gap with experience. Although we did have Murali Karthik on the advisory team, it takes more than advice for a new bowler to perform. Though not remarkable, RP Singh was a remarkable addition to the team. It is hard for a bowler to run in as hard as Ishant Sharma and not be awarded. English Batsmen knew their conditions well and Mr. Thorn always has a grounds committee for every English venue.

Now to the credit of Team England, they did have some in-form bowlers. Chris Tremlett was relentless and Stuart Broad found immense help in Therapy (or rather sugar coated version of Motivational Coaching). They got wickets against the run of play and the bowlers made the batsman play…. Did I mention the word ‘play’? And when the judgment day arrived (for the white wash), the magician stepped up to rip apart the fragile Team India’s tail (which btw starts from No. 5). All in all, sometimes the best laid plans do not work, but for Team England it worked like a charm and also with the Mantle of “World No. 1 in test cricket”. Kudos to England team. But then again it is just a minor blip on Team India’s future.

I keep reminding myself that “long term” results are a consequence of an efficient system. Hope the selectors stay wise and take positives from such a dismal series.