Wake up call for Team India

It is unfair to expect the seniors alone men to step up amidst a collective failure.

By the law of unintended consequences, the defeat on the fourth day of the Sydney test meant that India were left with an additional day to prepare for Perth.

Just like they did a few months before while they toured England, they landed in the Australian soil with the dreams of conquering the hosts in their backyard. Yet again the prognosticators were proved wrong as India’s dreams didn’t even reach Perth. Everything for this team has unfolded in a surreal fashion since the third day of the Melbourne test .

When India lost to England, there were several reasons peddled out right from absence of key players, form and lack of preparation. Thanks to the benevolent arrangement of a home series immediately after the tour, it paled the drubbing that was experienced in England. But that we have failed in Australia again have made the touring capabilities come under the scanner. Ironically, it is the absence of the ammunition that has made the situation worse.

Indian cricket these days has become depressing predictable. This team threatens to take us back to the 90s, the time when Tendulkar almost single-handedly battled against mediocrity. None other than the veterans – Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly transmogrified the team into one of the most formidable tourists with their skill and diligence over the last decade.

One of them is already in the commentary box legitimately expressing his opinions about his former counterparts and discussing the nuances of the game. The others are still there but their skills are fading away, reflexes are dying and the same technique around which their game was built is slowly starting to desert them. It is a painful experience to get confronted with the bitter truth – that you cannot be your best self anymore, at least not for prolonged periods of time.

Perhaps that is why it unfair to expect the seniors alone men to step up amidst a collective failure but this is largely based on the reputation they have built for themselves over their career.

While a lot of superlatives have been overdosed, especially when it comes to describing the ability the available replacements, tough conditions have stripped and exposed their skills as mediocre.

Arguably the rookies have shown a glint of talent and skills especially in the subcontinent when it comes to handling pressure and expectations. But ability and performance are not meant to be synonyms. They are supposed to go hand in hand. In fact one of these can’t stand alone. Champions marry talent with their work ethic. They are supposed to sweat the minute stuff and master their game in parts until the invincible ‘whole’ shows up one day. They are supposed to smell possibility in the face of adversity. They are expected to own an insatiable greed – like Australia did and trying to do now – to win literally everything, every game, every hour and every over of a test match.

Having said that, it must be grudgingly admitted that India gave up on the second day of the Sydney test after providing faint hopes of a comeback on Day one. Ponting and Clarke had not settled then, yet India simply played them into form. The fields set resembled the 30th over of a one-day game. India waited and waited and waited for something to happen. There was a discernible lack of motivation on the field and the memories of their last tour seemed to infect their nervous system. At the end of the second day there was no fight left in them.

As the cliche suggests, “events are first created in the mind before they actually translate into reality”. Losing almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy and it was not surprising that Australia wrapped it up in four days – the game was lost in their minds on Day one itself.

Being pitted against a side who are trying to rediscover their previous selves, India needs to show the intent – not for an hour, not for a day but throughout the series, in fact as long as they play if they have to journey towards the peak. It is this intent that India must own to win the remaining games.

However, winning the remaining games cannot atone for their failures and more importantly the lessons that must be learnt from them. If it does, India can only dream about greatness in the future.