Lack of Intent Reason For India’s 1st Test Series Loss in 3 Years
India’s talk about setting their overseas record straight is all up in smoke in just seven days of the series vs SA.
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Before the tour started, the talk was all about ‘how this Indian team played to win’. A generation of ex-cricketers cringed at these statements, but could not bite back, because the Indian squad under Virat Kohli had indeed done well in the last three years.
The only test that Kohli’s squad needed to pass was away from Asia. This was meant to be the moment when Kohli would lead his band of men into a new territory on a South Africa tour.
The whole squad was talked up and the build-up was all about setting the record straight, at least that was the premise of the broadcaster’s promo for the series.
But now it’s all up in smoke in just seven days of the series. It all comes back to how India prepared for the tour.
The last time India performed creditably on a South Africa tour was in 2010-11 and that was also the only time they prepared well for an away series. This was pre-2011 World Cup win and the world was not yet at our feet, so to speak.
The Test specialists flew in early with the then coach Gary Kirsten, who opened the doors to his Academy in Cape Town to prepare for that series. The few remaining Test squad members finished the business of playing New Zealand at home and then joined those already preparing in Cape Town.
Lack of Preparation
This time India had a similar opportunity, but the captain was away getting married, while the other members of the squad were playing Ranji Trophy. Unlike in 2010-11, Indian cricket squads are markedly different in all three formats. India therefore did miss a trick by not flying in their specialists earlier to acclimatise.
Kohli likes to stress on the intent of a player, well flying in early to prepare for the series would have been the perfect display of intent. The rest of the squad did not really have any pressing engagement like Kohli, so they could have done with at least two weeks of preparing for the Test series.
On the 2008-09 tour to New Zealand, the BCCI found an innovative way to let their Test specialists prepare for the tour, again under Kirsten. The likes of Murali Vijay, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were drafted in to play for provincial sides in New Zealand in their domestic first-class competition. That was also a show of intent. The result of that tour was India won everything, except the T20Is.
But since the World Cup win in 2011, India has almost been lackadaisical about preparing for away tours, sometimes forgetting that Test cricket is a different format.
Thankfully, the England tour later this year has a better itinerary with at least a fortnight before the Test series starts. The tour itself starts with the white ball contests, so there is enough and more time to prepare for that series. But do we have the intent? It remains to be seen.
With no game time, India was really going to struggle on the tour. A centre wicket practice is never really a substitute for match time. But then it was slightly better than a two-day non contest.
The politics behind the scheduling of the series was really the reason why there was no game time. The fight between the BCCI and the erstwhile CEO of Cricket South Africa (CSA), Haroon Lorgat, meant that the tour was crammed. Also the tour was compressed to an extent that the CSA did not get their favoured Boxing Day Test.
India – A Half-Baked Squad
When you have a half-baked squad to choose from, you can always make mistakes when it comes to picking your playing eleven. India made more than its share in both the Tests. Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane paid the price for his ‘poor current form’, whereas his Mumbai teammate Rohit Sharma got a run ahead of him. The debate around Rahane v Sharma will continue for some time to come, but what it has done is play with the confidence of both batsmen. Rahane will never be the same batsman again, while Sharma will continue to bear the brunt of all criticism.
Shikhar Dhawan at the start of this long season was not even in the shortlist of Test openers. But his performances against an ordinary Sri Lankan side became the benchmark for him playing the first Test in South Africa. On the other hand, the merry go round with Lokesh Rahul in the longer version is going to leave him with a confused mind as well.
The call to drop Bhuvaneshwar Kumar after his spell at Cape Town was also a blunder in the same way as it was to not consider Umesh Yadav or Ishant Sharma for the first Test. Too many blunders were committed before both Tests started, so it was only natural that they were carried onto the field.
In both Tests the batting just caved in without a fight, bar Pandya’s chancy knock in the first Test and brilliance from Kohli in the second Test. The lower order stood up for a bit, but the problem was that the top-order was just not attuned to the relentless pressure from South Africa’s pace attack.
Even before they settled down, the top-order was blown away in both Tests. Poor running also played a part. Then there was always going to be a lot of catching up to do. While India kept trying to catch up with the South Africans, they could never really take the actual catches.
Dropped Catches
Chances went down in the first Test which proved to be the difference there and at Centurion too the story was the same. While India has improved their ground fielding, the catching is still about trying to grab. Nearly four years under fielding coach R Sridhar and India is yet to make an improvement on that. Questions must be asked of the fielding coach for the lack of improvement.
The less said about wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel the better. A tenacious cricketer no doubt, but his glovework has not improved an inch since 2003-04 when he let slip a chance for India to win a Test series in Australia. That he is still India’s second best Test wicket-keeper says a lot about the system.
His new stand-by, Dinesh Karthik, is not any better and so India is really going around the same men for 16 years! The number one Test keeper for India Wriddhiman Saha had to pay the price for his batting and later his injury, leaving him as well in a state of confusion.
The only saving grace thus far for India has been the quicker bowlers, but they again have bowled well only in patches. The line on the first day of the Centurion Test was wayward and from thereon it was difficult to plough back. Despite the dropped catches and the general lack of support, they still stepped up. But the match was already lost in the head in both games, thanks to poor choice of personnel.
Kohli was indeed right, it does eventually boil down to intent then. The choice of personnel, the effort on the field and finally the preparation all lacked intent, something for the Indian think-tank to mull over.
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