Lions or Lambs

"Lions at home, but lambs overseas". This is what the indian cricket team was known pre-Ganguly/Wright era. What followed though was the best times for indian cricket. Under Ganguly and Wright the team won test series in West Indies, New Zealand and England and won test matches in Australia and South Africa. It propelled them to become the number one team in the world. That glory though was short-lived. Sigh.

It all changed within a span of 6 months. They lost 8 overseas tests in a row. And the manner in which they lost these matches is troubling as it evoked bad memories of the past. It feels like they're in the same spot as they were in 99/2000. The old saying is true again. The team has done a complete cycle. Sport pundits will tell you the team has gone through a cycle. All teams have to go through these cycles and most of them eventually manage to come out successful. Indian team did it once under Ganguly and Wright. So, they should be able do it again, right? The answer is not very easy. The challenges in front of this team are vastly different than ones faced by Ganguly and Wright.

Let's look at them.

• Packed Schedules and Player Fitness: Cricket schedules now days are packed. Gone are the days when teams used to get time to acclimatize to foreign conditions before an overseas series starts. Take Indian team's schedule in 2011. They played in the world cup at home followed by the IPL. It followed a full tours to West Indies and England. This was followed by a home ODI series against England and full series against West Indies at home. They ended the year with a Boxing day test against Australia. This kind of schedule puts extreme pressure on players bodies. Thus managing player fitness has become extremely important. BCCI needs to ensure its best players are always fit to play against the best teams. One of the primary reason Indian team failed so miserably against England was because it's best players were injured at the time. The English board managed their players effectively by keeping a close watch on individual player's fitness. Stuart Broad was made to play in a county game after missing games due to injury. It gave him enough match practice to get ready for the test series. Same cannot be said about Sehwag or Zaheer Khan.
• BCCI's Attitude: The BCCI has become a dominating force in world cricket today. They are the richest cricket board in the world. But, they forget that they don't have the best cricket team in the world. It was astounding to see BCCI's attitude towards their team's performances in England and Australia. These losses are being treated as a mere aberration instead of being investigated. The board needs to re-align it's priorities if the team has to regain the number one spot.
• Hunger: One of the primary reasons for India's success in the Ganguly/Wright era was it's player's hunger and resolve to be best in test match cricket. The same cannot be said in post-IPL era. Times have changed. Playing for 5 weeks in IPL earns a player much more money than playing in a hard fought test series. Young cricketers today need to have the same hunger & resolve that the Tendulkars, the Dravids, the Laxmans and the Gangulys had; if this team wants to taste the same success again.

These are difficult challenges in front of this cricket team. There are no easy solutions. Hard decisions will need to be made. Priorities will need to be re-aligned. Attitudes and outlook will need to be changed. The goal though remains the same: to become lions again.

The rise of England, and fall of India

At the end of day 3 of the 2nd test in Trent Bridge, England is close to 400 runs ahead with 4 wickets in hand. The way things have gone in the series so far, it is likely that England will bat a session and half, extend their lead to more than 500 and in the process set India an unachievable target. A repeat of the Lord’s test seems the most likely result.

And when it does happen, England will all but take over the #1 ranking over from India. ICC rankings are updated at the end of a test series, and England needs to end the series with a 2 win margin to take the #1 spot. So technically India doing a comeback of the order of Perth 2008 will still prevent this from happening. But to be clear, the only results available for India now are to either abdicate the throne or barely cling on to it.

‘How did it get to this point so soon? What went wrong?’ will wonder the Indian cricket fan.

Some ex-cricketers on the other hand have always seen this coming. Ian Chappell has always maintained from the time India got to the top spot that their stay on the top was going to be brief, despite a top notch batting line-up, mainly due to their lack of quality bowlers to take 20 wickets consistently in all conditions. Experts have cited the same reason for South Africa being the more deserving leaders in the game. They seem to possess the most lethal opening attack in the world, and have great batting depth in Kallis, AB, Smith and Amla. And since the day England retained the Ashes in Australia the question for all English fans has been ‘when?’ and not ‘can we?’ to take the top spot. Again, in their case, the argument has been that they have the most all round bowling attack in the world with Anderson, Swann, Broad and Tremlett with an in-form batting line-up backing them up.

India has had to defend its ranking against these strong contenders in their backyards. They did so remarkably against South Africa earlier this year by coming back from an innings defeat in Centurion to take the next test at Durban, and drawing the next test at Cape Town. Now they are doing battle with England in England, and at the time of writing this, seem to be losing this battle.

So is this the beginning of the end for India? I do not think so.

We have heard a lot of experts saying that England has looked the better side in the series so far, and India has not looked like the #1 side in the world. The biggest reason for India not looking like a world beating side in this series has been a series of injuries to their key players. Zaheer and Sehwag have been their enforcers with the ball and bat respectively, making some of the best players in the opposition look clueless. Add to this list the injuries to Gambhir, Harbhajan & Tendulkar. Is it really a surprise that this team has not looked like world beaters? How would this England team fare without Cook, Strauss, Swann, Anderson & Pietersen? How would the South African team fare without Smith, Steyn, Morkel, Amla and AB? For that matter how would the all conquering Australian team have done without Hayden, Langer, Mcgrath, Warne and Ponting? No team, no matter how strong it is, has reserves good enough to replace these players. It is not England’s fault that India has an injury list this long. But it is not India’s fault either.

Another way in which the stars aligned for England was them getting to face this weakened India team in a home series.  Look at the series results for these teams since the last time they met in a series in England in 2007;

• India has not lost a series at home, their worst result being 2 drawn series against South Africa. They have won against Pakistan, England, Australia (twice), Sri Lanka and New Zealand. They have not played at home against West Indies in this time period. They have lost 2 away series – to Sri Lanka and to Australia, have drawn series in Sri Lanka and South Africa and have won against England, New Zealand, Bangladesh and West Indies. They have not played an away series with Pakistan in this time period.
• England has lost 2 home series – to India and South Africa, drew none, and won against every other test team. They have lost 3 away series – against Sri Lanka, India and West Indies, drew against South Africa and won against Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh. They have not played an away series against Pakistan in this time period.

It is clear that England have an outstanding record at home. They are about to beat India, leaving only South Africa as the team to beat. However, they have not won a series in the sub-continent and have not defeated the other contender for the #1 spot – South Africa. With England’s record in the sub-continent in mind, imagine the current situation reversed. England going to India with Cook, Strauss, Anderson, Swann injured, trying to defend its ranking. What do you think the outcome would be?

We have heard several times that the top ranked team should be able to win in all conditions (like the West Indies team of the 80s and the Aussie teams after that). That is possible only if the top ranked team is significantly better than the other teams. What we have today is 3 teams that are unable to consistently win at home and abroad. No 1 team amongst India, England and South Africa is significantly better than the others. Who is at #1 will depend a lot on a favorable draw for that team in the FTP.

So as England will take over the #1 ranking at the end of this series, it will not mean that England is a better side, and that India will not be able to reclaim the top spot. This series is not the beginning of the end for India, but just a blip on an impressive record. Do not lose hope. This team will bounce back.

p.s. Wanted – a young spinner to replace Harbhajan. The turbanator needs to rediscover himself by playing first class cricket.

A bowler lost...

Earlier this week Cricinfo ran a column about the most expensive wicket takers in the history of the game. And sure enough, there was a mention of a bowler I have always supported. Ajit Agarkar. See my article about him written right after he was dropped from the ODI squad for the umpteenth time after the loss in the ICC WC2007.

This is what Cricinfo had to say about him in the recent article...

"Ajit Agarkar, the former India fast bowler, will be remembered as someone who took wickets frequently but conceded an awful lot of runs. His stats - a strike-rate of 33 and economy of 5.07 - say as much. However, scroll down the table below and you'll spot Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan, with worse economies and higher strike-rates. They'd do extremely well to get anywhere near Agarkar's 288 wickets in 191 matches."

I have always maintained, even now, that Agarkar will be an asset to this current Indian ODI team. He has an economy rate of 5 per over. Most of our current fast bowlers are close to or over 6. Plus, none of them have the experience of Agarkar. Does anyone look like even likely to get to 300 ODI wickets? Nobody (makes me sad to say this) in the current crop is consistent with the yorker. And almost all of them are slow pokes in the field and laughable with the bat.

Unfortunately I feel the reason why Agarkar has lost favor with the selectors and the team is the captain. Dhoni has chosen to trust young bowlers like Ishant, RP, Sreesanth, Praveen to augment Zaheer. A crucial point in Agarkar's career came during the first World T20 in SA. In the game against NZ, Agarkar ended up giving an expensive over when things were in India's favor. India ended up losing the game, though not entirely because of him. He lost his place from the team from the next game.

Agarkar has been a bowler who has never gotten credit for what he brought to the team. Often labelled as an expensive bowler and a batsman who got out for 5 ducks in a row. He was lucky to be with captains who looked past these weaknesses and accepted him for his strengths. Azharuddin, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid all supported Agarkar even as the general public opinion was against him.

So what does Dhoni know that these other captains did not to keep him out of the team? Or is it something beyond the cricket field?

Men in Blue - CB Series Champs

A huge victory for Dhoni and Co. It was like icing(a big one!) on a cake after a fantastic test series.
The little master silenced the critics(once again) by performing when it matters the most.
All you true Indian cricket fans out there....Enjoy those moments here.

• First final at Sydney
• Second final at Brisbane
  

Top 3 innings by Indian Batsmen in Ind-Aus test series

Indian batsmen had a very good series although India lost it 2-1. Here are the top 3 innings which stood out for me in the whole series,
1. Sehwag's 151 at Adelaide.
2. Tendulkar's 71 at Perth.
3. Laxman's 109 at Sydney.

There are couple more, like Tendulkar's 150 at Adelaide and Ganguly's 67 at Sydney. But from the context of the game these three stood out.

Told you so....

Just before the battle started down under between the 2 cricketing giants, on December 25th, I had a gut feel, which I communicated to my friend Vinod;

"I had a sudden realization or feeling (epiphany maybe) that India will do well at Perth. Everyone would expect us to get rolled over, but we will prove to be surprisingly strong. We have batters who have seen and have been part of collapses at such venues in the past... and have learnt from their mistakes. And our bowlers thrive on helpful conditions. Provided the opening partnership clicks for us in the first innings...we should have a memorable test match in WACA. Insallah!"

The little modesty I have tells me I should not be doing this...but wow, how right I was!!

Onwards to the grand finale...

Foreboding

My dear friend Vinod had a sense of impending disaster a month before it happened. Read his last comment in the previous post. While discussing India's prospects in the upcoming tour down under, we all knew that it was going to be a tough challange. And a win highly unlikely against a very strong Australian team.

Vinod said: I just hope that we play against 11 players and not 13 (the umpires).

India ended up playing against 15. The events that unfolded from January 2 - January 6 2008 have not only confirmed his fears, but have also shook up the cricket world.