WHAT went wrong?

BY RITAM MITRA

An analysis on the heavily disappointing performance of the Indian cricket team at the past two Tests against Australia

A nightmare of unmeasurable proportions has unfolded over the past few weeks for Indian cricket fans. It has been labelled as the “Recession of Indian cricket” and the “Disaster Down Under”. The right mix of superlatives itself is somewhat hard to find. However, before launching into a tirade typical of the type generally attached to Indian cricket crises, it’s important to carefully analyse just what exactly went wrong for India in the first two Tests against a resurgent Australia.

Melbourne

In the current state of affairs, it is easy to forget just how quickly things have turned around. After three days at Melbourne, India was still entertaining thoughts of a win, having more or less matched Australia throughout the first Test. For India, though, the match seemed to live and die by the Tendulkar blade, as has been the case for far too long.

The Tendulkar upper cut, along with his robustly compact forward defence, perhaps best sums up the Little Master. It is surgical in precision, has more than just a hint of genius about it, and is the absolute in subtle elegance. Tendulkar played a vast array of beautiful shots on the second day of the Boxing Day Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, including one of the most technically correct cover drives captured on film. However, one shot in particular made hearts skip a beat – Tendulkar arching back to politely guide a Peter Siddle bouncer over the slips, and indeed over the boundary ropes, on the first ball after the tea break. On my way to the ground, on the third day of the same match, I happened to overhear a conversation between a young Australian fan and his father. “Dad, do you remember that shot Tendulkar played yesterday?” was met by a reply of, “How could I forget it?” The young boy followed his question up with a delightfully innocent statement, “I can’t believe we have to get all of these guys all out twice.”

For it is India’s batting line up which, on paper, carries with it an aura perhaps not before experienced by any team in the modern era. The numbers themselves are telling enough – the top 5 have 135 centuries and almost 40,000 runs between them, with numbers 3, 4 and 5 owning almost 30,000 of those. To have the top two run scorers in test history batting after one another is one thing – but to have 3 of the best-ever performers against Australia in your top 5 is perhaps an altogether more relevant position leading into a Test series down under. In Melbourne, the Australian quicks more than proved themselves, reducing the statistics to mere numbers and perhaps showing the little boy that his heroes had something to offer the game, too.

Close…but no cigar India put up their best bowling performance in Melbourne in decades. Umesh Yadav was a surprise package, while Zaheer was a typically ruthless strike bowler. India’s bowlers, although they weren’t as clinical as they should have been at times, performed very well. Taking all the above into consideration, there is only one conclusion. India’s batsmen cost them the first Test match – and in more ways than one.

After being 214/2 in the first innings, the crucial Tendulkar wicket late on Day 2 stung India. Still, being 214/3 with a set Dravid at the crease, India should have looked to press home the advantage, especially having already lost two set batsmen in Sehwag and Tendulkar. Losing Tendulkar was bad, but Dravid’s wicket on early day 3, albeit to an absolute peach of a ball by Ben Hilfenhaus, was vital.

There was a lot of talk about the Australian tailenders and their sizeable contributions – but after all the calculations are done, batsmen number 8 onwards for India made only 25 runs less than their Australian counterparts. At the end of the day, India should have made a bigger fist of a chase of 292 on a perfectly good batting track – it was a case of the Australian batsmen forming partnerships at the more important times. No batsman from either team made a century; at 214/6, Australia should not have been allowed to make 333. And at 214/2, India should have made at least 400. Instead of taking a 100 run lead, India conceded 50, and even allowing for their embarrassing show in the second innings, the eventual losing margin of 122 runs is proof that Australia simply won the more important moments.

Returning to the ageing greats – it is a testament to their prodigious batting talent that the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman still hold a place in the side. However, only Tendulkar can lay claim to being truly adept in the field, and it helps that he has been an absolute class apart with his batting. Meanwhile, Dravid’s catching has taken an infamous slide, while Laxman’s ODI career has been finished for almost a decade due to his weaknesses in running between the wickets and fielding. A good fielder can easily save a side 10-15 runs over the course of an innings. Add to this some dropped catches, and India’s middle order stalwarts may well be costing them more runs than they are making. The solution is not necessarily dropping them – but scoring more runs would obviously suffice.

Melbourne marked Australia’s first win against India since 2008. Since then, India had beaten Australia 2-0 in two consecutive home Test series, as well as knocked the Australians out of the World Cup in 2011.

SYDNEY

Sydney is India’s home away ground in Australia. According to the experts. Even according to the players themselves. Easily forgotten is the fact that India has never won a Test here. After winning the toss and batting, which in Sydney has generally been a fool-proof method, India collapsed dramatically in the process of recording their biggest loss against Australia in recent memory.

Batting was the only correct decision to make, and as such for this decision MS Dhoni cannot be criticised. Bowling would have been an unnecessarily defensive ploy that could have backfired even more. The wicket had some early juice, but with a batting line up as vastly experienced as India’s, 191 was an absurd total. There is talk about technical deficiencies, such as the widening gap between Dravid’s bat and pad –if he is bowled two more times, he will have been out in this fashion more than anyone else in test history. However, the man is the second-highest run scorer of all time. He has quite simply, faced some good bowling.

Disappointing attitude

Unfortunately, India’s fall back from the top of the tree has been characterised by an inability to play the big moments. After reducing Australia to 3/37 after a masterful display of left-armer to left-hander bowling by Zaheer Khan, India panicked. A pair of counter-attacking knocks by Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke saw India move to the defensive far too quickly, allowing the pair free passage to stumps. Another wicket at this stage would have put the match on an even keel, and even perhaps tilted the match in India’s favour. Admittedly, Dhoni had only 191 runs to play with, and this time he was not to blame, having scored a half century in the first innings.

But the display in the field on Day 3 was nothing short of horrendous. Indian fans in the stands were wondering where their national team had gone. Indian journalists alongside me were stunned into silence. For a group of 11 players, who mostly receive obscene amounts of money precisely to deliver the killer instinct expected of a national team for 90 overs a day on the field, India were amateurish in their approach. Hands were on hips from the first half-hour, with pouts and expressions of pure resignation appearing throughout the rest of the day. Of course, this takes nothing away from the absolutely perfect knock played by Michael Clarke, with brilliant support from Ponting and Hussey.

There were a couple of missed chances –including a run-out of Ponting on 99 and Clarke on 178. They were tough, but at this level they have to be taken. It is true that any team in the world would be listless staring down the barrel of a 400-run deficit. But the problem for India is, their body language conveyed a deficit of that magnitude even when Australia was only 120/3. The rest of the match mostly meandered into the inevitable result – although Gambhir, Tendulkar and Laxman provided brief respite, the Australian attack was ruthless once it found an opening. Tendulkar’s dismissal saw a meek surrender from the lower order. Again.

Body language is an extremely underrated weapon – it is difficult to imagine an Australian side looking this uninterested if they were in India’s position. For those at the ground, it was difficult to miss that Clarke was the first one warming up for Australia after declaring on Day 3. There is a lesson to be learned here.

Let us forget the talk about Sachin’s 100th international ton. Let us forget the talk of India’s batting line-up being the best of all time. Let us forget that there are at least three of Test cricket’s all-time greats in this cricket team. Last time India toured, Anil Kumble made a damning remark, “There was only one team playing in the spirit of the game.” Right now, it seems as if only one team showed up this summer. And it is no use being good on paper if you are not ready to play.

Last time India toured, Anil Kumble made a damning remark, “There was only one team playing in the spirit of the game”. This time, it seems as if only one team showed up to play.

For a group of 11 players, who mostly receive obscene amounts of money precisely to deliver the killer instinct expected of a national team for 90 overs a day on the field, India were amateurish in their approach.