London: India have to quickly show some mental strength and discipline otherwise this series will be an embarrassing 5-0 thrashing. Test cricket is becoming a ridiculous mismatch, with most teams winning at home and failing miserably abroad.
India, the No 1 team in the world, have been awful in two Tests. Great teams and great players should not buckle as easily as India did at Lord’s just because the ball swings and seams.
The whole point of playing cricket in different countries on different pitches and in different climatic conditions is to test your technique, character and ability to adapt. So far, the Indian players have let themselves and their supporters down. The batting has been so naive and irresponsible, it has bordered on stupidity. Wafting drives at tempting outswingers is thoughtless.
Trying to work straight outswingers through midwicket and then being surprised when you get bowled or nick it to the slips is brainless.
Playing the ball on the up in front of your pad is a no-no. These are elementary things you do not do against any decent swing bowler in English conditions. To try to do it to James Anderson, who is one of the great master craftsmen in those conditions, tells me the Indian batsmen have not done their homework.
They have not sat down, talked or practised in the nets and got their heads around how they are going to bat differently in England.
These guys are used to batting on flat, dry, non-bouncing pitches in India and plundering easy runs. The new ball does not do much and the shine does not last long. Batsmen are king and can play lots of shots straight away. They have come to England complacently and arrogantly thinking they can bat the same way and everything will be OK on the day.
Well it will not. Any time you do not plan and work at your cricket, the game will kick you up the backside, and India deserve the thrashing they are getting.
I accept they have been unlucky with overcast, cloudy conditions, rain around and juicy, fresh pitches that have put them at a disadvantage. But come on, you can, and need, to do better.
Do not expect it to get any easier at Trent Bridge, because that is where Anderson excels. His bowling figures are exceptional in Nottingham and Stuart Broad will be up for the challenge with his home crowd behind him.
We England supporters are thrilled the team are winning but, quite frankly, if Anderson and Broad bowled at our batsmen, you feel the batsmen would fail.
Alastair Cook keeps getting out cheaply. Keaton Jennings has not made any runs. The No 4 position is still open and our wicketkeeper, Jonny Bairstow, has to bat at No 5 because we do not seem to have any other quality batsmen.
England’s success has relied too long on our fantastic middle order of Bairstow, Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali. Let us be honest, the decisive factor in the Lord’s Test was when Bairstow made 93 and the third seamer, Woakes, scored 137 not out.
Adil Rashid has not had a proper bowl yet so we do not know if he is the answer to filling the spinner’s position, so England are 2-0 up and we still have the same problems.
It is not fair to make any judgement on Ollie Pope after one innings. I hope Ed Smith, the national selector, will tell him he is in for the next three Tests, which will take a lot of pressure off the young player.
When I played my first Test in 1964 at Nottingham against Australia, the chairman of selectors was Walter Robins, former captain of Middlesex. I had never met him but he took me to one side the night before I batted and said he would give me three Tests whatever happened. I think that is the right way to go.
One other thing comes to mind. Smith or James Taylor will be going on tour this winter to Sri Lanka and West Indies.
But, on tour, the captain and coach pick the team. If Ed and James are only observers then they are not much use and may as well watch the Tests on television at home and save the expense.
It would be more important and helpful to English cricket if they took charge of team selection on tour as they do at the moment in England.
We need to have continuity, with the selectors in charge of selection at home and away.
I am a big believer in the chairman taking selection totally out of the captain’s hands. There is no favouritism that way and we all know who is in charge of selection and where the buck stops. So far, Ed has done well, so carry on and do not give it back to the captain and coach when we go away.
