THE winds and the waves are on the side of the ablest navigator. Old saying, mate, and quite meaningful. You should have the ablest navigator to make your point and find your way through the hardships. Unless you know the conditions, and read them well, you cannot assert yourself. Indian cricket faces a similar situation. It has a navigator who is in control when at home, the winds and waves suit his tactics, but once the same man leaves the shores of his home, he finds himself all at sea.
This is one question which has bothered us all but the solution has eluded everyone. The greatest of cricketing brains have failed to pinpoint the reason why we play poorly overseas and remain formidable at home. I had been a member of the Indian team which has swept the opposition at home and struggled to maintain similar standards overseas.
The reasons are many and I am not at all making an attempt to run down the side because you still have to play well to win, whether at home or overseas. But it hurts that a good side like India has such a poor record when playing abroad. I have heard some saying 'this holds good for other teams as well.' This is absurd. I would like such ill-informed people to go through the track record of teams like Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka in the last few years. They have been doing well overseas.
The Indian team has been committing the same mistakes and suffering defeats season after season. It is the same team which went and lost to South Africa but looks such a compact combination now that it is playing at home. Sourav Ganguly and his boys have the skills and talent to put up a much better show but have consistently been playing below potential.
Why is Indian cricket so disorganised? Right from selection of the 14 for the tour to picking the 11 for the match, the policy seems to be so inconsistent and devoid of any game plan. I don't want to criticise the manner in which the team to South Africa was picked because it was possibly the best side that India could have sent for that tough tour. But the same set of selectors went berserk and made sweeping changes in the bowling department, sparing the batsmen who too had failed in their duties in South Africa.
People with a mind too open get a lot of worthless ideas dumped into it. It holds true in the case of our selectors who inducted three new faces in the bowling department. I am not doubting the merit of the newcomers but I fail to understand the policy of throwing fresh talent into the international arena without one experienced head to guide them.
In South Africa, the team management made some blunders when picking the eleven. On a responsive track, they kept Harbhajan Singh out. The team management messed it up again when it went by reputation and not by conditions by picking just two seamers in the second Test. In the last Test, the selection of the bowlers was again contrary to the conditions. The Indians simply did not learn from the mistakes and made basic errors.
By repeating the mistakes, the team paid for it dearly. And they just did not learn the lessons at home too. In the second Test at Ahmedabad against the shaky Englishmen, the team management picked just two spinners. How can there be an explanation for keeping Sarandeep Singh out of the playing eleven on a brown track, conducive to spinners. With Deep Dasgupta now established as an opener, the team management could have easily created a spot for Sarandeep, who has been bowling so consistently well. He deserves a chance when in form but the team management seems to have its own agenda everytime. Let me make one thing clear. This English team cannot be rattled by seamers. It is spin that they dread and this is the weapon we need to employ against Nasser Hussain and party. They are so jittery when facing Harbhajan and Anil Kumble and yet the team management opts for just two spinners. These tactics seem to defy logic. Have you noticed how the English batsmen struggled against the spinners at Mohali. They played for spin when it was not there and it was an ideal situation for the Indians to exploit. For them Harbhajan was such a nightmare. Four of the five batsmen who perished to Harbhajan in the first innings fell to the overspin and one to the away going ball. None got out to an off-spinner.
Hope the Englishmen would have watched the South Africans tackle and later dominate the Indian spinners. The South African batsmen did not lunge for the ball but allowed it to come on to the bat as they waited on the backfoot. This way they could negotiate the overspin and also could control the ball and work it to their advantage. Playing spin with a short stride in the defence helped the South Africans a lot and the English batsmen would gain immensely with this tactic. Playing an extra seamer in Indian conditions is as useful as a one-legged man in a back-kicking competition.
Against this background, I thought the victory at Mohali was highly creditable. With that match, the credibility of Indian cricket rises because it was a perfect pitch for good cricket and that is what it produced. There was little help for the spinners in that pitch and all credit to curator Daljit Singh, who prepared a wonderful pitch for a Test match. Also full marks to I. S. Bindra for staging an international match with the traditional hospitality of the Punjab Cricket Association leaving a deep impression on those who saw this fantastic cricket venue.
The Indians will have to shed their negative attitude and defensive approach to improve its image. The win against Englishmen at home will not provide all the solutions but it will give a direction at least for the administrators to pursue.
The selectors and the skipper cannot afford to be on a warpath all the time. It is not good for cricket at all. We all know the captain and the selectors seem to have differences and it is time such issues were sunk. The selectors should not chop and change the team constantly. Three new faces, forget the victory in the match at Mohali, will not always work. There should have been one more experienced bowler at least. On the subject of having experience in the side, I would only remind the selectors that darker the berry the sweeter the juice.
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