What India should do differently

Can they create magic in Perth?

India is staring down the barrel yet again in an overseas tour and this situation is not very different from the one a few months ago at England. They have been beaten in all departments and questions are definitely bound to be raised. The recent rout at Sydney has caused a lot of ex-cricketers to question the position of quite a few players in the side, in addition to loads of comments from all quarters of the cricketing fraternity.

But there is one important question to be asked at this juncture before any instinctive decision is taken: are we looking at the result of this current series Down Under or are we looking at building a future team for the nation? Since both of these cannot be achieved simultaneously, it has to be given serious thought. Should India field a stronger side (i.e. on paper at least) in the coming two Tests or should they drop a senior member and give his place to a newcomer?

There has been a lot of talk about dropping VVS Laxman and bringing in Rohit Sharma, thereby giving Virat Kohli the longer rope that he is worthy of. It has been close to 3.5 years since Sourav Ganguly exited the international scene and India are still not able to find a suitable number 6 to fill the slot. Showing the door to Laxman is not going to make matters any better for India, who are already trailing 2-0 in the series. So the first job at hand is to make sure India avoids yet another embarrassing whitewash within less than 12 months of winning the most coveted trophy in limited overs cricket.

To stay or not to stay?

Laxman has been made the scapegoat. The so-called legends of Indian cricket do not have the guts to question anybody else’s form. Though Sachin Tendulkar has been in great form this series, he has consistently not converted his starts into match-turning knocks. Rahul Dravid again has look patchy, and so have Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, while MS Dhoni again has been really poor in three of his four outings. The one-off half century does not add a lot of value when compared to his other innings. Is it not possible to drop any one of the above mentioned players?

You do not try to build your future team in such unfriendly conditions and with the series almost on the verge of a whitewash. It would be intelligent if they played a less experienced team in the local conditions back home and get them ready before they are up to such a humongous task. If Rohit Sharma makes his debut in Perth and ends up not scoring, will it not be demoralising for someone who is playing his first Test? Even if he could make a difference in the otherwise disappointing Indian line-up, how long will he be around?

Will he make it to the XI?

Just a few months ago, Dhoni was the best captain everyone in the world had seen. And now there are polls run in national dailies questioning if India needs different skippers for different forms of the game. It’s true that he has lost six consecutive Test matches and a lot of those losses could be attributed to his defensive tactics. India have squandered very good positions in many Test matches because of his field placements. But does a captain’s job end just with field placements? Ever since Dhoni has become the skipper, players have been more assured of their place in the squad and have consistently delivered goods.

Dhoni’s responsibility with the bat has definitely got to improve. He could promote himself up the order and try to play his natural game, which would put the opposition bowlers under pressure and they would find it difficult to go through the defence of the likes of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman. India could look a much more formidable line-up if the batting order is tweaked. Dhoni would then not complain about not having enough partners to support his cause.

So what could (or should), in my opinion, India do differently for the Perth test?

• Retain the same 11, but maybe replace Virat Kohli with Rohit Sharma.
• Play Dhoni at number 3 and shift the batting order down by 1.
• Have a more attacking field (a defensive field is not reducing the loss margin anyway).
• Ask for more responsibility from all the batsmen irrespective of the nature of their game.
• Play with a positive frame of mind for all 5 days.

Well, this simple 5 point strategy might not solve all of the team’s problems but at least a different approach might salvage something for the tourists, who seem to have decided that a whitewash is inevitable.