This article was originally published in Indo American News.
Its been more than a fortnight of India’s loss to Australia in the World Test Championship at the Oval – the loss as an Indian fan still hurts. I had the wonderful opportunity to be part of the India – Australia World Test championship and watch it up close. Infact I was part of not just the 5 days of Test cricket but also the 2 days prior to the game on Practice Days.
Hindsight is almost always 20-20. But when a team considered to be one of the mighty powers in World Cricket, one needs to call spade a spade and asks for strict assessments in all aspects. Since 2013, India have played 8 Semi finals and finals in ICC tournaments and lost all of them.
To say that Team India played poorly,would be an understatement. They were outclassed and outplayed by a far better prepared team in every department. And in many ways the writing was on the wall right from Day 1 where India won the toss but lost pretty much everything after that. Australia ended the opening day at 327/3 and continued to dominate proceedings. India were left to play just catch up from then on.
So where did the India falter ? Let’s look at the big tickers or talking points.
India : Toss & Pitch
Any Test match starts by winning the toss and reading the pitch. With so much of experience by the Indian camp – Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, Kohli on one side. But the team looked utterly confused with what they wanted to do after winning the toss. Choosing to ball with a sub standard bowling attack was a wrong move to begin with. Although Indian bowlers had a good start and kept Australia to 76/3 it was down from there onwards. Coz Steve Smith and Travis head put a mammoth 285 run stand to take the wind of India’s sails. Dravid post match said it was not the toss but the amount of runs leaked that caused Australia to take the game away.
Australia: A good toss to lose
Pat Cummins said that he would have chosen to bowl as well. But may be it was a good toss to lose after all. Steve Smith’s 121, Head’s 163 and Carey’s 48 had already done the damage. There was a reason Travis Head was declared Man of the Match, coz his 163 was really what packed the punch for Australia. Whatever anyone has to say- it definitely was a good toss to lose for Australia.
Ashwin Omission
India opted for 4-1 bowling attack. With 4 fast bowlers and 1 spinner. But one has to ask questions when ICC No. 1 Test Bowler is benched – one has got to ask questions. Why only Ashwin ? Why does he have to sit out everytime you play on green tops in England, Australia ? Billion dollar questions that no one in Indian Cricket wants to ever answer. Not only is he a world class bowler but he has 5 Test Centuries in his name, as saved India many Test matches with his batting contributions. Even the great Tendulkar had to say it out in a Tweet
Undercooked pace strategy
It never worked. Shardul and Umesh took 4 wickets together. No doubt Bumrah’s absence hurt India. This meant Shami and Siraj had to do too much heavy lifting. Coz 9 of the 18 Aussie wickets were taken by them.
It also asks the question – what is India’s bench strength when it comes to next generation fast bowlers. I had the wonderful opportunity to watch the Practice Days of Indian team. And the one bowler that looked lethal was Mukesh Kumar. He actually got Kohli bowled 2 times during practice games. With Bumrah coming back for Asia Cup – it’s good signs but don’t know if he would even play Test Cricket for India.
Exhausted & Fatigued
There is absolutely no doubt Indian players were tired. It raised questions about the scheduling of a match. No matter what anyone says the top players will always play the IPL. And with WTC scheduled in June there hardly is any gap between WTC and IPL. Barring Pujara and KS Bharat all players playing IPL were exhausted. Even the Australian Hazlewood injury flared up and he had to sit out.
Aussies were fresh and raring to go
In many ways, Aussies opted out of the IPL were all fresh and raring to go. Being fully aware of their long schedule of WTC and then the Ashes. So except for Cameron Green every Australian was suited to play Test Cricket. Planned to the tee.
At the end – the better team deserved to win. Australia were better prepared more fresher and hungrier than India to win this coveted trophy. India on the other hand – the same old story told differently. Pujara got the axe – but one must ask – why are Rohit and Virat spared then ?
This article was also originally published in Indo American News magazine.
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