The tour of England couldn't have ended any better, another defeat in yet another match. We have been totally deflated and battered in every form of cricket, not to mention the #1 tag we had to justify all along the tour. In a way, I think this is a good jolt back to reality after the WC 2011 victory, we were carrying ourselves like we were totally invincible but actually I don't think we really deserved the #1 tag and we were all along vulnerable to a good cricket team. For Indian cricket, this is a good sign of things to come, this will actually make the selectors and players think about the future and where do they see the Indian cricket team and themselves, respectively, in the coming years. I think the approach should be more towards grooming youngsters like Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Pujara to take the core responsibility which all along has been carried by likes of Sachin, Lax and Dravid.
I think it is time to make some tough decisions regarding the seniors in the team, we cannot indefinitely make talent wait in the sidelines without proper match practice or experience at the international level and then, when the seniors decide to leave at their own time, thrust them into the test arena. I am not trying to stir the already murky pot here, but I think our performance in England desires a lot to be improved at least at our bench strength tier.
We shouldn't stop here, as it will be sending the lambs for slaughter, I think we should start the discontinued practice of making our youngsters play county cricket like the old times. Playing Ranji and IPL is getting all the desired revenue a player wants, but I think a serious decision at the Board level to send in all the prospective players or promising players to get trained in the English conditions will prepare them for all situations. We don't want another instance where PK and Ishanth had to take one full innings to get acclimatized to the conditions before hitting their stride. This will help the bowlers and batsmen get a glimpse of conditions beyond the sub continent not to mention the improved confidence when they come across a bowler friendly surface next time.
What has been a strength this long for the Indian team has been left to rot in the recent times, I am talking about the quality of spinners we are seeing. We don't have the next big prospect beyond Harbhajan Singh and it is really hurting us when we play in foreign conditions. They are not big wicket takers when we play outside the Sub Continent, but we don't need great spinners, all we need is a quality spinner who can stem the flow of runs from one end. Any non-sub continent batsmen will definitely not feel comfortable playing spin even if it was me or you bowling lollypops from a short run up under the spinner tag.
As the postmortem of this series starts to flow in the coming weeks, I am eager to see the lessons learnt and the prospective direction of the Indian cricket. Nothing can change overnight, but still I think this is the right time to make critical decisions if we want to rule the cricket world on the field. The sad portion on this entire series was making my analogy remain true till the end.
I think it is time to make some tough decisions regarding the seniors in the team, we cannot indefinitely make talent wait in the sidelines without proper match practice or experience at the international level and then, when the seniors decide to leave at their own time, thrust them into the test arena. I am not trying to stir the already murky pot here, but I think our performance in England desires a lot to be improved at least at our bench strength tier.
We shouldn't stop here, as it will be sending the lambs for slaughter, I think we should start the discontinued practice of making our youngsters play county cricket like the old times. Playing Ranji and IPL is getting all the desired revenue a player wants, but I think a serious decision at the Board level to send in all the prospective players or promising players to get trained in the English conditions will prepare them for all situations. We don't want another instance where PK and Ishanth had to take one full innings to get acclimatized to the conditions before hitting their stride. This will help the bowlers and batsmen get a glimpse of conditions beyond the sub continent not to mention the improved confidence when they come across a bowler friendly surface next time.
What has been a strength this long for the Indian team has been left to rot in the recent times, I am talking about the quality of spinners we are seeing. We don't have the next big prospect beyond Harbhajan Singh and it is really hurting us when we play in foreign conditions. They are not big wicket takers when we play outside the Sub Continent, but we don't need great spinners, all we need is a quality spinner who can stem the flow of runs from one end. Any non-sub continent batsmen will definitely not feel comfortable playing spin even if it was me or you bowling lollypops from a short run up under the spinner tag.
As the postmortem of this series starts to flow in the coming weeks, I am eager to see the lessons learnt and the prospective direction of the Indian cricket. Nothing can change overnight, but still I think this is the right time to make critical decisions if we want to rule the cricket world on the field. The sad portion on this entire series was making my analogy remain true till the end.
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