Travelling woes continue for Team India

India’s first innings sins couldn’t be forgiven at the end of the Test

Trent Boult firing in, Ishant edges one to the keeper and New Zealand erupt. This Test victory has been a great success story for the Kiwis who are on the verge of getting back among the elites.

On the other hand, it has been a familiar story for the Indians over the past 3 years since the ordinary series victory in the West Indies. Since then, they haven’t managed to win a single Test away from home. The worrying sign is, India have been humiliated in most of those defeats.

We have had very good home victories against Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies in the meantime, which cloud our deficiencies Suddenly, India’s foray into the top of the Test pile 4 years ago looks very distant. The present Indian team is new, young blood with such great talent with Kohli and Pujara especially destined for greatness.

But the problems have always remained the same – bowling. India lost against the Kiwis not because they couldn’t score 400 in the 4th innings, it’s because they let them score 503 in the 1st innings.Very few teams win a Test match after conceding 500 in the 1st innings.After such stretch of failures, the pressure is inevitably on the coach and the captain.

With Dhoni, he has an immaculate home record as a captain that will rival any of the great captains the game has had.  But a captain’s greatness is always measured with what he does in testing, alien conditions and in that aspect, Dhoni is always falling short.

Even though he has had a few valid reasons, his captaincy has always been disappointing to say the least. His method of captaincy might have worked in the early 90s when India played Test matches abroad just for the sake of avoiding defeat. But now, with aspiring young cricketers and huge expectations that Dhoni himself superbly managed when he led the team to number 1 in Tests, his ultra-defensive style is never going to work out.

His team selection sometimes leaves us scratching our head with Ishant Sharma invariably picked for every single game despite being nothing short of ordinary in all of those games. A 3rd bowler is not in the side to contain, that too in Tests, he is in the team to not let opponents settle after the opening bowling pair have finished their quota and to capitalise on the complacency of the batsmen and pick wickets.

Ishant has never done any of those and his average and strike rate proves that only India and Dhoni would persist with him despite being a failure for so long. His 9-wicket haul in the last game doesn’t reflect his ordinary bowling in that game which we are accustomed to.

Jadeja is coming of age as a performer and Dhoni must trust him as a batsman so that we can play a 4th seamer (which Dhoni hates because of the over rate) or a lead spinner (which Jadeja is not). Jadeja can’t be a lead spinner, but adds great value to the team as an all-rounder. This will mean that Dhoni has to compromise on Rahane or Rohit which time will only tell. Dhoni’s field placements have also come under scrutiny of late and he must make things happen if nothing goes to plan, which is very important while playing away from home.

With the coach, well it’s surprising that Fletcher is given such a long rope despite being uninspiring to be honest. What he does behind the scenes is unknown but whatever it is not showing any improvement. Teams play with same side for each game only if they’re winning but Dhoni decides to stick with it even when we lose.

I’m afraid Umesh Yadav will end up like Steve Finn. He’s good enough to replace any Indian bowler in the team and he has the rare gift of bowling real pace effortlessly. He has been wayward but he can only get better with more games.

With India losing 10 away games, it might well be with playing young bowlers like Shami, Kumar and Yadav rather than losing despite playing the “experienced” Ishant. I’m not singling out Ishant for our downfall, but he somehow keeps surviving falling down the pit that has swallowed better bowlers than him in the past is what that is surprising.

The next Test starts this week and I don’t think there will be any change to the line-up. This has been the problem with India as we’re yet to find a winning combination, but we still persist with the losing one. I reiterate that our batting can never let us down, occasionally yes, but our batting is as good as any in the world right now except for the Proteas.

And bowlers can only win Test matches especially in England, Australia and New Zealand which we must realise before we tour England and Australia again this year. If we don’t, then it’s going to be Deja vu for the fans as well as the survivors of the previous tour.