New Delhi: It’s that time again when the brickbats are coming down hard at the Indian cricket team. Yet another ‘away’ tour and the same result, again. The Indian team had made its way into the Asia Cup hot on the heels of an embarrassing defeat at the hands of hosts New Zealand. MS Dhoni excused himself from the series owing to an injury and it was time for Virat Kohli to wear the garbs of the skipper. However, only the hands changed, the results didn’t. The Indians are flying back home, empty-handed, of course.
Let us take it match by match. India played four opponents — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They won two, lost two. The wins came against the weaker teams; the losses, against the stronger ones. This gives us some perspective. The wins are not really a saving grace. Had one of the wins come against Sri Lanka or Pakistan, we could have perhaps looked at some positives. But having lost against both the stronger teams gives a lot of migranes to the team management.
The first match against Bangladesh was a great opportunity for India to shed the losing streak and start afresh. That’s what they did, but not without exposing their achilles heel — working as a unit. India’s bowling had a lot of chinks in its armour, with the frontline bowlers failing to live up to their reputations. They let Bangladesh off the hook, allowing them to pile up a very decent total, with one century and another half century in their batting line up to add insult to injury. India’s chase largely depended on Kohli, who blasted a century. Despite the win, India’s inclination to depend on one player showed up once again.
Against the Sri Lankans, India’s batting fell face flat, with only Dhawan and Kohli helping India wriggle out through a sticky bowling attack, Again, the dependence on Kohli emerged, burdening him with way too much. While the bowlers did put up a good show, the top order had already done the damage and the Indian bowlers’ late realisation didn’t work too well. Against Pakistan, there were a few decent batting performances, but the Pakistan bowlers were way too sharp for the Indians to handle. The bowling once again, failed to demonstrate any spark and before anyone knew it, Shahid Afridi stole the show from under the Indian noses. The fielding too was erratic, with misfields and missed chances costing India dearly.
However, the last match, the one against Afghanistan, the one that India won, seems to be the one that has kicked up a storm. Fielding an unchanged team has become the eye of a controversy, with former players slamming the team management for the decision, and rightly so. India had no chance of making it to the finals. Instead of cribbing about it, they could have made use of the situation by testing their bench strength, which they didn’t. It is probably this lack of vision that is taking the team down.
Nothing, so far, has worked for the Indian team — change in hands, ‘home-like’ conditions, familiar opponents. It’s high time the selection committee takes stock of the situation and makes a few sweeping changes. The Asia Cup was team India’s best bet at making a comeback and shutting up the critics for some time at least. But with this embarrassing exit, there are no excuses, really, no positives, either, other than Kohli, to take some solace in. It’s a wake up call, a harsh one at that, to rethink the strategies and combinations. Otherwise, we are looking at a cricketing brain-drain, which, to some extent, has already loaded in India.