Ganguly, the best Indian skipper

During my Baggy Green days, it was always against India, England and West Indies whom I enjoyed playing the most and our tour to India in 2001 will remain my favourite. Being one up, we should have won the series but India fought back brilliantly and the fans witnessed brilliant cricket from both the sides.

I always enjoyed playing in or against India because of the fight they always posed. I have some great memories of playing in India and 1996 World Cup is certainly one of them. The hundred against India in Mumbai and the hundred in quarterfinal against New Zealand in Chennai are some of the best I have ever played. Mumbai and Bangalore have always been my favourite venues in India and my highest score in Test cricket, the unbeaten 153 came in Bangalore in our 1998 tour. I was sick at that time and hadn’t slept the night before. It feels even better because we managed to win the Test.

I first played against India in 1991-92, though we won the series it wasn’t really a happy outing for me. What really fascinates me is even then a teenaged Sachin Tendulkar was India’s best and 20 years later, he still looks the very same. This is truly remarkable. He still enthralls all with his dedication towards the game. No wonder why fans everywhere around the world love to watch him.

The Indian fans are one passionate lot, they appreciate good cricket, they are up for their team wherever they play and that makes playing against India even more special. The current Indian team has disappointed everyone in this series with their lack of fighting instincts. I have played against several Indian teams and witnessed a couple more post retirement, but the current lot has come across the worst I have seen. They had the quality this time around and aren’t as bad as they were made to look but the intent lacked.

Apart from that, I truly feel they lacked good leadership and out of all Indian captains I have seen or played against, I would go to an extent saying that MS Dhoni has been the most disappointing. Indian skippers have always been defensive especially when compared to their Australian counterparts, but still they haven’t been looked as rudderless as Dhoni. Mohammed Azharuddin was a smart skipper, while Tendulkar always led by example. Sourav Ganguly was by far the best Indian skipper and his positive leadership made a huge difference in the 2001 tour and later when Indians toured here in 2003-04. Captaincy is always not just about winning matches, but also about how you approach a game and manage the team. Ganguly did that pretty well.

With Dhoni banned for Adelaide, I hope the stand-in skipper Virender Sehwag injects some zest in the current side. Sehwag as a batsman plays the main role in India’s success and most often we have seen that it’s when he performs India are at the top and his not coming good has been one of the chief reasons for India’s debacle. He is a positive cricketer and I hope he scripts a memorable fight back for his team, which Indian sides have done in the past. Runs are there at Adelaide and the conditions should suit the visitors, so I desperately hope for a good showing by the Indians.

For India, it’s time to look beyond

Batting which has always been India’s strength has been the main cause of India’s consistent debacle in the overseas. Losing seven away Tests in a row outside India, the much famed Indian batting has been found wanting and it’s a serious issue. Technically most of the batsmen aren’t well equipped to adjust to the conditions in Australia. There will be an argument that the same VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid have scored bulk of runs in Australia but they haven’t played cricket here for four years and they aren’t getting any younger. As one ages, the reflexes naturally slows down and in conditions like Australia the technique is exposed. In the subcontinent such shortfalls wouldn’t be observed because of the lack of pace and bounce in the wickets out there.

No doubt that few of the Indian batsmen are out of form but more than form it’s a technical deficit which I have observed in the likes of Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni, even Dravid and Laxman. Sachin Tendulkar looks fine and he hasn’t been found wanting technically, rather his dismissals have been more of mistakes made by him. It’s time for the administrators to look at this drubbing as a serious issue and take necessary measures for it. Dravid and Laxman have been wonderful players for India and there is no doubt that they will still score the odd hundreds especially on the home turfs but they need to invest in young guys, who will play for them in the years to come. You rather risk and lose matches with the new bunch while they learn at the same time. Virat Kohli continues to impress me and like I have said before that, he can be utilized the best when he comes out at number three or four. I am sure India will have more talents like Kohli who are waiting eagerly for an opportunity to prove themselves. It’s time to show faith in them.

It’s fine to play to your home advantage but to avoid this sort of a situation, the administrators also need to ensure that the curators prepare pitches with grass left on them enabling the domestic players to get used to conditions similar or at least close to the ones here in Australia.

Another of my observation is Dhoni’s leadership, which has been a complete contrast to his counterpart Michael Clarke. Dhoni has been just too negative, defensive and there has been dearth of ideas. His own poor performances have added to the whole catastrophe while Clarke has been very impressive. He has backed his players, innovated, slogged it out in the middle and most importantly learned from his mistakes.

The Australians won a series in Sri Lanka, then managed a draw against South Africa and after they won against New Zealand in the first Test, there was a certain complacency which crept in and the result was a defeat in the hands of the kiwis in the second Test. So there is where Clarke and his team have learned. I hope the Indians do the same and play with conviction as we expect at least some sort of fight or an evenly fought contest in the final Test match at Adelaide.

We need to learn from the Aussies

The dream was shattered in Melbourne. The slim hopes extinguished at Sydney. The nightmare continues.  Just like every parent hopes that his wards will do better than them and fulfill their ambitions, former cricketers like me were so optimistic that this team will do what ours could not and that is win a series in Australia for the first time. We had been part of teams that came close but were unable to go that extra step. We drew series but never won them. This time the Australians were really vulnerable, they were rattled, they were nervous, they were apprehensive. they had been dismissed for 46 in South Africa, they had been beaten by New Zealand at home just a few days before the India series started and they were being called names by their media which is usually their twelfth man.

It all augured well for India. They went in almost two weeks before the first Test, in fact some of their senior players went even earlier though how that was going to help is debatable since they were not enough people to have good practice. This despite knowing that there is no practice like match practice. All that the players had asked for was given to them.

This is a new generation. They believe in not too much practice but switching off from the game so that they can be mentally and physically fresh for the next one. So we are told. After Perth, the patient Indian cricket supporter is entitled to ask the question ‘did you forget to  flip the switch back on ?’ It sure will be interesting to see what the players will do now that they have two more days off.  Hopefully they will show some good sense and not do anything that will raise the hackles of their supporters. Then there will be no need to show the finger to anybody.

The Australians were similarly battered by their media and the fans after the loss to their Trans-Tasman neighbours. They put their heads down and got together for a batting camp where they looked to practice against the swinging ball which was the cause of their down fall against New Zealand and South Africa. They sacrificed the extra days around Christmas time with their families to work at their perceived weakness. They knew that India’s bowling was centred around swing so they worked diligently at it. Players like Ricky Ponting with over 12000 runs under his belt and Clarke and Hussey with a few thousand under theirs too, worked on their backlift, they worked on foot movement. They worked hard trying to hone their technique against the seaming ball. They were all under the kosh and they knew it. There were no verbal jousts at the Indians through the media. Just heads down and practice, practice, practice.  They took a day off for Christmas but were back again by lunch time and switched on and how.

We have seen it. Hope the Indian team has too.

Indian batsmen again let their bowlers down

There was a lot of talk going on ahead of this tour that this is India’s best chance to beat the Australians at home. There were reports on how this Indian team is better on papers. But unfortunately cricket is played on the field and right since the start, I didn’t believe that this would be an easy series for India and always believed they would struggle, especially after we saw what happened in England. The sides led by Sourav Ganguly in 2003-04 and Anil Kumble in 2007-08 showed spirit and put on great shows against formidable Australian sides but overall, despite of their recent success, the Indians have a history of struggling in alien conditions.

It was pretty evident that India would be at unease in Perth but I didn’t expect a whitewash of this sort and we almost saw a Test match getting over inside two days. The Australian bowlers stuck to their task and once again put their team on top. The batting performance was below par to be honest if we take out David Warner’s sensational knock. It is always great to have someone in the side who can play such breathtaking innings having such an impact on the opponent that it virtually shuts out them out of the game. When he started his cricket, not many could have foreseen him as a Test batsman but in a short career, he has scored two tons and both of them will be remembered for the character he showed. He almost pulled off a win against New Zealand and this knock was brutal to say the least, one of the best certainly. So barring his opening stand with Ed Cowan, the Australian batting lacked the resilience, especially in the middle order. However looking at it now, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on the match. Warner’s knock gave the hosts too much time in the game and given that fact, it would have been good for someone like Shaun Marsh to get some runs behind him.

Umesh Yadav bowled his heart out and Indian bowlers restricted the hosts to a lead of 208, which was reasonably a good job especially after the pounding they got on Day one. However their batsmen once again let the bowlers’ efforts down by another ordinary outing. With Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli at the crease, the task is daunting for India and with the way they have played so far, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if we see Australia reclaim the Border-Gavaskar trophy with a 3-0 win on Day three.

On our way to a series loss

Cricketers and Award functions

India may not be doing too well on the field in Australia with huge losses in Melbourne and Sydney, but they certainly seem to making the right impact off the field. Even before the first Test was played they attended the Bradman oration at the war memorial in Australia’s capital, Canberra and that too dressed in formal attire. How many in that team would have been aware of the importance of the venue and the historical significance is not known, but it is one of the most inspiring and illuminating of places and from the moment one enters, one finds memorials that tell of the sacrifices and the glory achieved by the Australians who fought in the war. It is without doubt one of the finest memorials that one can come across and thanks to the Bradman oration dinner, the Indian players at least managed a visit there. If that was a pleasant surprise what was even more so was the interaction with all other attendees. Indian teams over the years have been notorious for congregating together in a corner at any function and hardly ever exchanging talk with other guests. It is understandable to an extent, since some are socially challenged with language and more crucially after the match fixing saga took place they are genuinely wary of strangers and so do not put up a warm exterior to those who they don’t know and who they are meeting for the first time. It is almost like being once bitten twice shy for them in that aspect. That unfortunately has been misunderstood as being snooty standoffish and unsocial. Sportsmen, as a rule are more comfortable with their own ilk, which is probably true of most professions because of the commonality of interests there. The burden of being ambassadors for the country does not sit easily on most and some are downright unaware of it.

Then the team went one better by wearing pink caps as they posed for photographs. The third day of the Sydney Test has been officially marked as awareness of breast cancer day in memory of Jane McGrath, wife of Glen and so even the shirts worn by the Australians on the field that day had a pink sponsor logo instead of the red one that is usually seen on their shirts. It was a tremendous gesture on the part of the Indians, since it is an Australian charity and they would have been excused if they had not participated in it. Having done that and won plaudits they will now hopefully look upon such Indian organizations with the same kindness and magnanimity as they did for an Australian one.

In England when Yuvraj Singh foundation had an event to raise funds for the charities it supports, not all in the team turned up though of course all of them landed at a similar event for their skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s foundation dinner earlier on the tour. Of course players are street smart and know better than to displease the skipper, by not attending his charity do but it is really good that they are doing their bit for charity.

The Australian team is very particular about attending awards ceremonies where one of their players is receiving an award. Obviously if the team gets an award then the entire team does attend, but it is when even one of them is winning for the entire team to attend shows the kind of camaraderie and mate ship there is in that team. It is for this reason that one seldom hears of any fissures in the Aussie team, though of course there will always be some players who do not get along well with each other. The genuine joy that they get in a teammate winning an award is to be seen to be believed and while most teams try to copy Aussie methods, this is one aspect with which they will never be able to match the Aussies. The Indian team has recently attended two award functions as a unit and while one was the board awards which is understandable what was surprising is that they also attended an awards event of a TV channel. One is pretty certain that there was no appearance fees discussed with the channel though that otherwise seems to be the norm for other awards. If a player is not winning an award he will not turn up or even if he is winning he will ask how much the award is worth and if it is worth his while to attend. This is where they can take a leaf out of the Australian book and show mate ship with their award winning teammate. There is somehow a belief that since the sponsor of the award will get mileage the player should be paid clearly forgetting that when they were aspiring youngsters they would gladly attend any function where they would be invited. It is sponsors who keep the game going along with the cricket fans and if players today are making a very good living out of the game it is thanks to the sponsors and the fan who spends money from his pocket to attend matches or get merchandise.

The problem stems from the way that functions are slotted by the team management. There are functions which are called official functions which usually are the functions of the cricket board that the team is touring and the high commissioners or the government’s functions. All other functions despite being accepted by team management are called optional functions, which is where problems arise, since players feel they have the option not to attend and so not one member attends. This has caused plenty of embarrassment for the hosts who has invited guests to meet the team members.

The recent attendance suggests that there could be a welcome change in attitude unless it’s the usual complex of attending foreigner’s functions and not those by their own countrymen.

Blank days should be utilized

The one bright spot in India’s loss to Australia at Sydney is that India got to no less than 400 runs. This is only the second time in some twenty innings overseas that India has reached 400, so despite the loss there is something to celebrate. Seriously though the flaws in the batting are getting more and more exposed and with the next Test at Perth they may be such that it cannot be ignored any longer. Being brought up on pitches with low bounce means batsmen are hardly tested above the waist. It is easier for those brought up on high bounce pitches to make the adjustment, from staying on top of the ball, to getting lower to play it on the subcontinent. Getting on to the front foot is a natural movement for batsmen. On the other hand, going from slow low bounce pitches to harder bouncier ones means the front foot movement has to be curtailed unless the ball is right up to the bat. What a batsman has to do is to stay still as much as possible and play even later still. The hands movement which are easier going on the front foot is that much harder when the ball is between the waist and the shoulders. It can be helped if batsmen can move their back foot as deep in the crease as possible. This is a movement that happens only when the ball is to be cut on the slow pitches and so not too many are used to it. On the contrary there is such a natural movement forward that it is hard to shift the balance on the back foot. Ashwin showed how it can be done, by playing the ball late and also by playing besides the line of the ball rather than behind the line which is where short statured batsmen flounder.

India has plenty of homework to do, but unfortunately don’t have the spare time to do it. It would have been great if there had been a two day practice game arranged in Perth in the 5 day gap before the Test, at what is supposed to be the bounciest and fastest pitch in Australia. That of course had to be done before the tour began and that should have been the responsibility of the senior players who have been to Australia before and the coach to ask the BCCI to arrange that extra game. There is a similar gap between the Perth Test and the Adelaide Test and even here there is no game slotted. The question is have the players gone there for holidays or have they gone to play competitive cricket and if the answer is the latter then why are there so many off days for players supposed to be the epitome of fitness? Yes, modern day tours are compressed because every Test playing country has a packed schedule, but where there are blank days those need to be utilized. It will be interesting to see if the team practices on the Sydney pitch on the fifth day, now that the Test is over. They lost badly in Melbourne in four days, but did they practice on that fifth day which became an off day? No they didn’t. If they had won the game it was understandable, but when they had lost and lost badly at that they should have been working on their weaknesses. What is the point taking 17 members on the tour and having the reserves getting rusty with no competitive cricket. Those six players who don’t play the Test plus the six or seven others who have failed to perform should be out practicing, for that’s what they are on the tour for and not to take in the sights. Unfortunately when you allow the players to choose the coach, then the coach is going to make sure he doesn’t upset them and ask them for extra practice sessions.

Melbourne’s gone and so also Sydney. Be prepared for the same in Perth.

India’s being against DRS baffles me

The Sydney Test gives the Indians a chance to do well and probably stage a comeback in the series. The pace and bounce added with some quality fast bowling unsettled the Indian batsmen in Melbourne, but in Sydney the assistance to the seamers is likely to reduce as the match progresses, much to the Indian batsmen’s liking. Apart from an easier track, what might work in the visitors’ favour is the inconsistency of the hosts. The Australians haven’t really made use of the early advantage in the recent past and we have seen this team often conceding the advantage.

Though the track will be better suited to the Indians, they still have an uphill task in their hands. They were never a side who did well away from home, and now they have lost five consecutive away Tests, so they will have to play out of their skins to stage a comeback from here. I have been really impressed with what I saw of the Indian bowlers but however their old problem of cleaning the tail still stays on. Maybe it’s do with the fitness and they run out of steam towards the end of the innings. It’s understandable that Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma are coming back after injuries, they also don’t have a seam bowling all-rounder to take the load off their pacers, but what is also not helping them is their defensive strategy but that’s how Indians have always played their cricket.

Their major concern lies in their batting and only Sachin Tendulkar has looked to be in complete ease. Gautam Gambhir is looking terrible and he seems to be facing the same problem as Phil Hughes. Even Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman haven’t looked their usual sorts. What adds to the concern is the crucial number six and seven position. Indian skipper MS Dhoni’s form in Test cricket hasn’t been good off late and ever since the retirement of Sourav Ganguly in 2008, the Indians have struggled to fill the number six slot. However I feel the Indians should persist with Virat Kohli as he is genuinely a good batsman and a prolific run getter. The problem maybe he bats higher up in the one-day format, so it seems he is comfortable batting up in the order.

The Australians were very impressive in the first Test. Their bowling was a combined effort, which won them the Test. The batting at times was found wanting but it was good to see that the veterans making the difference and also the tail applying themselves. Ed Cowan, who is more of an old fashioned opening batsman had a good debut and probably could have gone on to score more before he was given caught behind in the first innings. The umpiring hasn’t been great and I don’t understand the logic of Indians to not favour the DRS. The system may not be perfect but it definitely reduces the errors and the percentage of the correct decision goes up. This has been proven that DRS reduce the wrong decisions and it simply baffles me on why the Indians are against the system!

One-day habits hampered India

India missed out on a wonderful opportunity to go one-up in the Test series. If they had, they could have dominated Australia in the rest of the series. The Australians, having lost to trans-Tasman neighbours New Zealand a few days earlier, were under fire at home from their own media. In normal circumstances, their caustic observations are reserved for the touring team as the Aussie media gangs up to become an extension of the national team’s support staff.

That did not happen as the media was kept busy discussing the merits and demerits of Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey’s place in the team. The Australians were rattled and were extremely wary of the Indians because they knew that apart from the batting, India were well-equipped in the bowling department too.

What happened was the same old story. India got the top order back in the pavilion for not too many, but were unable to dismantle the lower order. Why does this happen? The explanation is simple. The bowlers keep bowling the same length and line that they do to the top order. The lower order, not being as accomplished with the bat, play and miss or get the edges to add runs. They need to be bowled a much fuller length after a short delivery that goes past the grille. Nine out of ten times they will either try and hit it out of the ground, or won’t cover their wicket and be bowled. The field placing also needs to ensure that if there is a recognized batsman batting with the tail, then he is not given easy singles.

Unfortunately, the One-day habit comes into play and singles are conceded in trying to protect the fours. In batting too, Test cricket is about ‘unscorable’ deliveries being left alone, but again the limitedovers habit of trying to make each ball count means the ’keeper and slip cordon are kept in business. In One-day cricket playing against the white ball which does not move much, a batsman can get away with little footwork, but not so in Test cricket where the red ball moves all the time.

Sydney has been India’s favourite ground and so there is hope that a recovery can be effected. If that doesn’t happen then it will be another case of a golden opportunity lost. India have come back last year in South Africa after a first Test loss, but then again did not have the killer punch to knock them out when they had them on the ropes in the third Test. Sri Lanka have done exactly what the Indians did by winning the second Test after having lost the first Test to the Proteas, and it will be interesting to see if they can maintain their winning tempo.

Rangana Herath was the hero for the Lankans by claiming nine wickets in the Test. He has also carted the quicker bowlers for some useful runs down the order and is the CEAT International Cricketer of the Week.

Tough times ahead

The capitulation was sad to see. A team that went Down Under with hopes of winning a series for the first time being swept away by pace and bounce was a sorry sight. Even sorrier was the feeling that this might just be the first of the losses in the series.

Make no mistake, if on a pitch where the ball came on to the bat nicely and with an even bounce, getting dismissed for under 300, then on pitches with a bit more in them, how will they cope? Remember in England too India with this formidable batting, at least on paper, were unable to get to 300 till the last innings of the Test series and unless someone plays an outstanding knock and has some company, the Indians could struggle to get to 300 in Australia too. Yes, the next Test is at the Sydney Cricket Ground where India’s batting has usually flourished and its spinners have got some turn, but it is the manner of the dismissals that does not give scope for much optimism.

It would be interesting to see how all those who criticised the authorities for not sending the team early to England will react now that the team went almost two weeks before the first Test, and also played two warm- up games against quality sides.

Fact is, if acclimatization was the only issue, then shouldn’t India have done well from the second Test in England. OK, shouldn’t they have done well in the third Test then? And shouldn’t they have won the one- day series since they were in England for two months by then, and should have got used to the pitches and the weather?

It does not matter how much time one spends in another country. What matters is not the physical adjustment, but the mental one and this has been Indian cricket’s drawback from time immemorial.

Sure, there will be some players who do that, but if the majority in the team don’t do it then defeat is just round the corner. It is not only the batsmen who have to make that change in approach, but also the bowlers. India plays so much one day cricket that bowers become defensive and are looking to stop runs rather than take wickets and batsmen are looking to attack even deliveries that they shouldn’t. They get away in limited overs cricket because the white ball doesn’t seam and move as much as the red ball does and the fielders are in run- saving and not catching positions, so all the edges which would otherwise be gobbled up by the slips in Test cricket go safely through those areas left vacant in limited overs.

Leaving ‘ unscorable’ deliveries alone is vital in Test cricket which is a five- day format, but a batsman cannot afford to leave too many in limited overs cricket. This is the reason they are playing at deliveries outside the off stump reaching for them. It is here that the mind has to sort itself out, but as has been seen in testing conditions in England, the bat gets drawn to the ball by habit and in Test cricket it is injurious to health. Bowlers too would rather be cut and pulled than be driven because there is the dread of being hit over the top. It is when a bowler gets the batsman committed to the front foot that he is unable to change his shot. Look at the fall of the wickets in the entire Test and it is batsmen getting out to fuller length deliveries.

So is all lost then for India? It will all depend on how quickly they realise that they are playing Test cricket and not limited overs cricket.