It was a disappointing end to the series with another huge margin of defeat at The Oval and what started with a fabulous win at Lord’s culminated in a sad end, a result which has taken aback a lot of Indian supporters and fans.
What has been shocking is the massive drop of the level of the game as the tour went on. In sport, some win and some lose but as long as there is competition, one accepts the losses but I am sure the players will also be massively hurt at the turn of events. There is no doubt that there is lot of talent in that dressing room, the likes of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara are players with enormous ability but the reason for their continuous failure with the bat must have been a huge drop in their self-belief as the tour progressed, more than their level of batsmanship.
Once that starts happening, the best in the world will look like ordinary players. A five-Test series is a lot of cricket to be played and the pressure of poor scores, much improved bowling from England and the big totals of English batsmen in the first innings made it much harder for the Indian batsmen to cope up.
As much as there will be a lot of criticism of Indian batsman at the end of the series, we must give them a little bit of space as they are young and in the early days of their careers — but they must remember that they should learn a lot from this and make sure they come out as better players. They will play a lot of five-Test series in the future and should find a way to remain fresh throughout the series.
The key to success in sport is just not to be intense but also to switch off when the game is over and it will be very much an important part of the game for the likes of Pujara, Rahane who are at times over-caring about their game and it could tire them out mentally. For India, their bowling over the years have not been their strength, it’s their batting which has put up big runs on the board and allowed the bowlers to put pressure on the opposition. This will once again be the key to their success in the future tours. They will be travelling to Australia in the winter and will need to keep it in mind.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni also has to reassess himself. His batting form in this series was a much improved one but his overseas captaincy is not getting better.
As much as I believe that he should still carry on in spite of calls for his head, he needs a massive improvement in his tactics. He has been battered in the last four years with too many losses, something which can affect any captain in the world but it is he who can change things around for him.
He needs to be a lot more proactive, change things around a lot more rather than allowing it to drift when nothing is happening. I thought he did the right thing in picking five bowlers at the start but should have shuffled around the batting when nothing was going right just to release the pressure on the batsmen who were lacking in form for a considerable period.
As I write this, there has been a considerable development in Indian cricket over Tuesday — the appointment of Ravi Shastri as the director, Sanjay Bangar as the assistant coach and a new bowling and fielding coach as well. I am very happy to see all of them get a chance to show their credentials.
There are a lot of good coaches in India and I think it’s the right time they get the opportunities. They toil hard with the ‘A’ sides and they deserve this. India won the T20 World Cup and the series in England with the likes of Chandu Borde and Lalchand Rajput and my sincere good wishes to Ravi and his team in the One-day series.
Sanjay Bangar got rewarded for his performance in the IPL and he will bring a calming influence to the dressing room. I am looking forward to their successes in the One-day series.
