5 ways to revive Indian Cricket

Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong for India in this series

Bruised, battered, thumped, mauled – all these words are enough to describe India’s campaign in England so far. The much awaited clash of the titans for the ultimate supremacy in test cricket has just ended up being a dud affair. When cricket lovers wanted two equally skilled teams to fight it out in the middle and match blow for blow, only one team showed up in the series and made it a no-contest in the end. And the major reason for this has been that the number one test team in the world just remained a pale shadow of its real self in the last three tests they have played.

India reached the number one position in late 2009, but reaching the summit is one thing, and prolonging your stay there is another. To stay number one, you need proper planning, persistent efforts and most importantly – willingness to be number one. The team which turned up in the first three tests against England never looked like a number one team.

Their body language and demeanor was more of tired listless men being forced to play cricket in torrid conditions than a bunch of fearless men who crushed whosoever came in their way. It was not about India losing the first three tests, but what was more disappointing to see was the way how such esteemed bunch of individuals surrendered so meekly to the hands of England.

Although Team India might have lost their numero uno status as for now, but they can still revive their lost glory in test cricket by applying a long term revival plan.

Prioritize between the three formats.

Youngsters like Suresh Raina quickly need to get out of the T20 mould and focus on test cricket.

The younger generation of Indian player still seem to play in the T20 mode. The way likes of Raina and Gambhir got out in this series showed the lack of application needed for test cricket. They are extremely talented players, but their shot selection was extremely awry at times. They must know that a good test player can alter his game to the other formats but not vice versa. They need to shed the T20 mould and build their technique to suit the test format.

They need to understand that Test cricket will always remain the ultimate root of cricket, T20 and ODI cricket are just the branches which has come up over the years. They cannot let T20 or ODI cricket to overhaul test cricket in order to grow as a cricketer.

Schedule Away Tours properly.

The BCCI is better placed than anyone else to get the best possible schedules. Being the dominant figure in the ICC would have allowed India to get what they wanted to remain the top ranked team in the world. But this never seems a priority to the BCCI. Instead the BCCI flexes its muscle over appointments and the Decision Review System.

This was not the first time India entered an away series with a single practice game. India got a single practice game on their tour to South Africa late last year. The result was there to be seen as India was hammered in the very first test of the series. On the other hand,England played 3 warm up games before the Ashes in Australia last year. No wonder they won the Ashes 3-1. If India has to perform consistently outside sub-continent, BCCI would need to change its approach and have atleast 3 warm up games before an away series.

Build a separate bench strength for Test cricket.

When you look at the teams which ruled test cricket in the past such as the Bradman’s invincibles of the 50′s, the mighty West Indies of the 70’s or Steve Waugh’s men of the late 90’s – all these group of world beaters never relied on certain men to bail them out of critical situations. They had a large pool of equally talented men who stepped up whenever the team wanted them to.

Even after having the IPL, a platform for Indian youngsters to compete at the world stage, I still believe that we lack enough fire power in our bench strength to consistently win outside the subcontinent once the older players retire. Winning overseas is more about the mental approach rather than skill. This is what some players lack when they are brought in the test arena on the basis of IPL performances. And this is where the BCCI needs to pick more of Mukunds, Pujaras, Rahanes etc into the Indian scheme of things for test cricket.Leave players with flamboyant techniques to the ODI and T20 format while including the grafters and the accumilator in the test arena.

The Zaheer Khan incident at Lords proved that players cannot be trusted on their own fitness.

Keep a regular track on the fitness levels of the players.

Home series against Australia and New Zealand followed by a month long away tour to South Africa, then the World Cup, followed by the IPL and then the tour to the West Indies.This was the amount of cricket team India played during the last one year when they entered England for such a high voltage series.

As a result,India entered the series with a half fit Zaheer Khan, who consequently pulled his hamstring on the first day of the first test leaving India with only three bowlers. Similarly, Harbhajan broke down during the second test, leaving India’s bowing attack to half its strength.

This showed that players cannot be trusted on their fitness levels. Those hiding injuries should be punished. Regularly monitoring the fitness levels of the players and not allowing them to play unless they prove their fitness in domestic matches will help prevent such circumstances in future.

Encourage players to play county cricket.

Gary Sobers, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne , Zaheer Khan – all these great players played county cricket in England at some point of their lives and have always emphasized how it helped them tranform as a cricketer. Zaheer played a season of county cricket at Worcestershire in 2006 and he was altogether a different bowler from then on. More for a country like India, where cricketers hog the limelight 24/7, playing county cricket will help them focus only on cricket and will certainly make better professionals when they turn up to play for India