Hot Spot | Chetan Narula
One writes this after the first day's play at the WACA, Perth. The mood is one of dejection. India have been bowled out for 161 on a green top wicket, with ample bounce and some movement. Nothing like what was being predicted, nothing that would be too uncomfortable for their famed batting line-up! Yet they were shot out in 60.2 overs. And then Australia batted, rather David Warner did, smacking a ton off 70 balls. It took him less than a session to do that, humiliating the former Test world No. 1 team to no end.
It almost defines which direction this Test match will head into. A seventh consecutive away loss is on the cards, with a strong possibility of 4-0 in Adelaide. The fourth Test is a new game and will be different, it can be argued. But the fight just seems to have gone out of the Indians. Towards the end of play, Ed Cowan gloved one straight down the leg side to MS Dhoni and no one appealed. It is over. Continue reading below
While the tour will take some time getting over, there is a lot of thinking that needs to be done. By the powers that be, by the selectors, by the team management and even by the fans! The BCCI needs to see if it has gotten its priorities right, the selectors have to ask themselves if they do really have a vision or whether it would be better to vacate their positions now. The team management has to think what to do with the ageing stalwarts, and if at all something can be salvaged from whatever remains of this beleaguered trip. And the fans have to decide whether they will want to think (and support) pragmatically regarding future decisions or keep feeding off the perspective-shorn sections of the media.
Wait a moment. Weren't the above lines mentioned some six months earlier too? At the time when England won 4-0, there was a lot of talk about transition, building for the future and getting priorities, such as player management and injury, right. In September when the Indian team returned without a win under their belt, the entire saga was perplexing to say the least. In the last 12 years, the Indian batting hadn't failed as badly - the last occasion being the 3-0 thrashing in Australia in 1999. Their bowling was never a real strength, and injuries to important players only made it worse. That explanation was perhaps enough and the whole thing was considered a freak of nature. It couldn't happen twice, not again soon enough, how could it?
This is a moment to ask yourself if indeed, you did not fear for one second that India could lose 4-0 in Australia. To say they could win a Test series in Australia for the first time was a little optimistic, but that is what Indian fans have done since the dawn of cricket in this country. At best they could have achieved a drawn series, maybe with some luck. A 2-1 margin would have been acceptable. But certainly not this - almost 3-0 after the end of first day's play of the third Test and no way of stopping the rot.
Keeping it plain and simple, everyone - the Board, the selectors, the team management, the captain, the seniors, the players, the media and the fans - read it wrong. The writing was on the wall and none could identify it. How else can anyone explain what is going on Down Under? Forget the West Indies tour, both home and away, for a moment. That is not an opponent Indian cricket would want to compete with in the near future, for the objective (hopefully) is to be atop the top and not scrape at the bottom.
Have the openers scored any runs for a long time? In their last 19 overseas Test innings, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir average 14.31, with a highest of 63. Hardly the requirements of success in Australia! VVS Laxman didn't fare too well in England and this is not to say that he shouldn't have been on the flight to Australia. But if really there was the need to kick in the transition phase, did anyone suggest he go play some Ranji Trophy for Hyderabad and let some youngsters get a chance against the Windies at home? The answer is no, for Indian cricket is not known for such thinking.
Rahul Dravid did exceedingly well in England. Let us not beat around the statistics, but instead choose to look at a definite pointer about a player's reflexes. For the world record holder in Tests, he has dropped a hell of a lot of catches, indicating that his concentration is on the wane and reflexes indeed are slowing down. Then there is his strike rate. Any particular number of tons is not an indicator of an ageing batsman's second wind as attributed by many experts. It is the ease with which he scores his runs, his strike rate.
Dravid has struggled in those terms and now there is a gap in his defenses too, the big difference being the line bowled by the opposition. While the English bowled on the off stump, the Aussies have nagged him on the middle stump. Meanwhile, even Sachin Tendulkar doesn't escape censure. Not for his batting because that has been nothing short of exemplary charm, but the monkey of the hundredth hundred is now too big to tame. How could it not affect his psyche when it affects a billion other people? And let one not get started on the bowling, for again, that is not this team's strength.
At the end, let this be understood. This is not a mid-series call for their heads. No, you cannot act like that. These are worthy, creditable players who have given their all for Indian cricket. Yet, every player - good or bad - has a shelf life. Perhaps, in the coming months, when all of this is over, it is time to read the expiry dates on some of them.
Maybe, just maybe, Indian cricket needs to wake up to the ominous signs of lurking disaster.
