With the wicket of Umesh Yadav, Nathan Lyon
finally brought an end to India’s misery in Australia. I suspect the saddest
thing about the final day of the series was that, like many of us, many in the
Indian team too were just waiting for it to end.
It is sad because it is against the quite
essential spirit of sport. Many have told me that winning is not everything. I
listened silently and nodded (deep down inside, I am not sure, but that is me J).
One thing I am absolutely sure of, however, is that the WILL to WIN is
everything. Losing is no shame but even the thought of accepting defeat before
fighting every inch and every breath is horrific and repulsive. That is what
has happened to the Indian team and that is why this is one of the lowest plains
they have hit in the years I remember. The cries from Sehwag and Gambhir (esp.
when the series was not even over) about the invincibility of our team on
Indian pitches were nothing but vents of frustration and hopelessness.
I don’t want to spend too much time writing
about the collective batting failure and the reasons behind that. Enough words
have been/will be said by wiser people. In short, yes, our batting failed and
changes should have been made to the batting lineup/order, but, for me, batting
failure was only one of the four reasons we failed.
Apart from the two I already mentioned –
defeatist frame of mind and poor batting - there were two more: poor
bowling by India and excellent bowling by Australia.
Usually, against top test teams (Australia,
England, South Africa, Pakistan), India’s fate heavily depends on the contest
between the opposition’s fast bowling (their strength) and India’s batting
(our strength). This series was no different.
If the joker were a cricket expert – maybe he
was J - and he was asked to predict the results of this series on Dec
24th, he could have just quoted his line from the Dark Knight –
“This is what happens when an Unstoppable Force (Bunch of inexperienced yet
exciting fast bowlers from Australia) meets an Immovable Object (the legendary
Indian batting lineup).
Alas, in this case, the unstoppable force
proved too much. The consistency, discipline and ruthlessness of the Australian
attack were beyond words. If you can, just have a look at all of Laxman’s dismissals
in the series one by one, you will know the Australians came out a plan and
executed it to perfection. They kept probing him just outside off stump on a
good length and he kept edging it behind the stumps.
Moving on to the other extreme, Indian
bowlers were, at best, average. This was perhaps the weakest Aussie batting
lineup I can remember. Watson was out injured, Warner was a T-20 player asked
to play tests, Ponting was fighting for a place in the team, Marsh was not
completely fit, Hussey was being asked questions about retirement…and yet, India
lost two matches by innings margins.
Zaheer was predictably good, but what about
others. Yadav and Ishant bowled good in patches but, at this level, patches are
just not good enough. You have to keep bowling good balls, one after the other.
Bowling 3-4 good balls in an over and then gifting one down the leg/ short on
off is simply not done.
I almost cried watching Vinay Kumar bowling
at Perth. He is 27 years old and got his first match of the tour at arguably
the fastest pitch on earth, yet he starts off his spell with a 122 kmph loosner
and maintains an average speed of 125 kmph. He cannot swing the bowl either way
and can’t get the ball to pitch on its seam. If he was really the best we could
send to Australia as a replacement, then god help Indian test cricket.
In the end, we are not unfamiliar with these
losses. Look beyond a few years in past and it is just like the pathetic 90’s
we spent under Azhar. Only, I really thought that the great Ganguly had turned
it around forever.
Yes, we are a cricket crazy nation but I am
not sure if have our priorities right. We won’t play another test match until
7-8 months from now and in a flurry of ODI’s and T-20’s, many will forget what
happened in England and Australia. Personally, I can only hope that we don’t.
For me, winning test series’ in England and
Australia would have been a greater feat than winning the ODI World Cup in
India and I suspect/hope many in the Indian cricket team share this ambition.
