India's recipe for success in overseas Test matches
India won their first away Test series since 2011 by defeating Sri Lanka 2-1 in the recent three-Test series, thus signalling the arrival of Virat Kohli as India’s Test skipper. Success for overseas Tests has been an issue for India throughout its history, and it reached a low under previous skipper MS Dhoni.
As an avid follower of cricket, I felt let down by our team on a number of occasions in overseas Test matches since 2011 under the captaincy of Dhoni. One of the permanent features during that period has been the inability of our bowlers to bowl the opposition out. Even after removing the top order cheaply on a frequent basis, we have seen the lower order and the tailenders consistently frustrate the Indian bowlers as well as the Indian cricket fans.
Dhoni persisted with Jadeja at the No. 7 spot
Despite this, Dhoni was adamant on using the 4 bowler approach as 7 batsmen offered that added safety. Jadeja was always a key player in Dhoni's team. However, his performance with the bat and ball in the following three overseas Test series proved beyond doubt that he is not fit as a bowler or batsman to be a part of the Test squad.
| Opposition | Runs | Average | Wickets | Average |
| South Africa (2013/14) | 8 | 4 | 6 | 25.66 |
| New Zealand (2013/14) | 82 | 41 | 3 | 85.66 |
| England (2014) | 177 | 22.12 | 9 | 46.66 |
He was played ahead of Ashwin, Harbhajan and Mishra as the sole 'specialist' spinner in a few of these matches. We should have won the first Test at Johannesburg even if one bowler had clicked on the last day of the Test match. Instead we almost ended up losing the match. Same story was repeated in New Zealand.
Why did the captain or the board have no guts to play 5 specialist bowlers, specially when Bhuvenashwar Kumar was performing better than many top and middle order batsmen in England, is beyond me. Barring his fifty in the Lord's Test, Jadeja did not have anything to show as a batsman in the 13 innings in these 3 Test series. His 6-wicket haul against the Proteas did not prevent them from scoring 500 runs in that innings and India ended up losing the Test by 10 wickets in Durban.
Even in India’s previous away series against Australia we allowed players like Mitchell Johnson to take the game away from India with the bat.
India should stick with five specialist bowlers
With Ashwin cementing his place as the leading spinner for India in Tests, the selectors should pick at least 4 other bowlers in every match. While Ishant and Yadav look to be the obvious choice for the forthcoming Test series against South Africa, we should not shy away from picking two more specialist spinners.
Amit Mishra will surely play considering his stellar performance in Sri Lanka, especially his ability to remove the tail. There should be a focus on grooming a yound spinner in this series under the guidance of Ashwin and Mishra since age is not on Mishra's side.
For overseas tours, we need a couple of more seam bowlers who have pace as well as control. The performance of Ishant and Yadav against SriLanka was a kind of benchmark that our seam bowlers need to achieve. Yadav, Aaron and Ishant have bowled well only in patches in the last 3-4 years and their averages and economy rate are a testimony to the same.
Mohammad Shami needs to regain fitness and find some form. Aaron is too wayward – just delivering the bowl at 145kmph is not good enough at this level. Bhuveneshwar Kumar is a good option provided he does not keep dropping his pace; its hard to remember him touching even 135kmph when he last played for India.
Mohit Yadav and Dhawal Kulkarni have been in and out but not good enough to cement a place in the team. Ideally they need some exposure in England just like what Pujara did for his batting before making his comeback with a match winning performance.
Kohli's attitude and perseverance with the 5-bowler approach despite India’s loss against Sri Lanka at Galle, has got the desired results and we hope this is just the begining of the good times for India in overseas Tests.