At the end of the day or at the end of a game, the captains are usually involved in a press briefing. An overwhelming majority of those briefings are not even worthy of listening to because it usually follows the same old cliché. This is not restricted only to cricket. This is the case across the entire world in every sport. Captains are not trained to handle the media. Their job is to go out onto the field and win games for the nation. The lack of training is telling in every media interaction. The losing captain will usually say that we did everything we could but it wasn’t good enough. The winning captain will gloat over everything that turned into gold when the fact is somewhere in the middle. However, Rohit’s media briefing after the Melbourne defeat was slightly different. It wasn’t one of the boring press briefings.

Rohit Sharma has been struggling with his batting for quite awhile. With Ashwin retired, there are calls for Rohit to retire as well. The minimum that is expected is for him to resign the captaincy. The defeat at Melbourne was the 5 Test India has lost in 6 games under Rohit without a single win. The Perth victory was achieved when Bumrah was the captain. As such, Rohit is under tremendous pressure. He is hurt and was letdown consistently by the batsmen. Rohit is not in a mood to either relinquish the captaincy nor to retire from the game.

Instead of revealed something that painted Rishabh Pant in a bad light. It wasn’t wrong because Pant deserved to be reprimanded after his twin atrocious shots opened the gates to the Australians.

The Pant reprimand or was it?

“Rishabh Pant obviously he needs to understand what is required from himself. More than any one of us telling him, it’s about him understanding and figuring out what’s the right way to go about it. In the past, he has given us lot of success doing what he does. As a captain, there’s a kind of mixed reaction to that. As captain, it’s hard to have a conversation when it has given him a lot of success as well. But it’s about him figuring out what is the right way to do things, it’s about situations as well. Certain situations of the game, if there’s a risk percentage, do you want to take that risk? Do you want to let the opposition come back into the game? Those are the things he needs to figure out himself.”

These are telling lines. It signifies that either Pant is not listening to what was being told to him or he does not really care about the situation the team finds itself in, quite often these days. This is infact a serious situation. Pant is a highly talented batsman who, if he applies himself, will end up with an average of over 50. He is that kind of a batsman. Test cricket is his calling card. If Pant is unwilling to adapt to the demands of the situation, something must be done. Not that long ago, against New Zealand in Bangalore, he played an innings that was uncharacteristic. It was what in cricketing parlance called controlled aggression. Yet, he scored at almost a run a ball.

A specialist batsman must be a bit more responsible

The twin shots at Melbourne will make anyone who has seen Pant bat in adversity, pull his hair. Especially, the ungainly scoop of Boland. His dismissals, triggered a collapse that was somehow arrested by Sundar and Nitish in the first innings but no one could in the second. At number 5, he is being treated as a specialist batsman. If he fails to understand the responsibility of a batsman, it is better he comes down the order at number 7 or 8. Sundar showed much restraint and must probably bat ahead of Pant.

Was Gill not dropped?

When the team was announced, everyone thought that Gill was dropped and rightly so. Gill hasn’t been scoring runs consistently. He had a good series against England in India and also he was the only batsman who scored in the 3rd Test against New Zealand. However, his overall numbers shows that the rope given to him has extended infinitely. The decision to drop him was justified. However, it seems that he wasn’t dropped.

“I had a chat with him [Gill]. There’s no way when you’re leaving someone out, for whatever reason it is, you will not have a chat,” Rohit said. “The chat with him was clearly he was not dropped. [We] just wanted to have extra bit of cushion in the bowling and we opted for an allrounder, which shouldn’t weaken our batting line-up.”

Rohit Sharma confuses everybody and is confused himself.

Wrapping up boring press briefings

These two comments were significant in an otherwise boring press briefings. It would have been even better if Rohit had said that Gill was indeed dropped on performance and that Pant has not been learning from his indiscretions. For once, let the captains say whatever they thought. This Indian team has been balancing on a thin rope for a very longtime. An insipid England was the only team to lose comprehensively. Jaiswal covered the failures of other batsmen in that series. No one has come to the rescue in Australia and against New Zealand.

Rohit himself is guilty of still hanging onto the captaincy despite a horrible record for an Indian captain next only to Dhoni.

Other blogs

https://icricketcritique.com/the-border-gavaskar-series/
https://icricketcritique.com/australia-clearly-is-the-favourite/
https://icricketcritique.com/series-between-unequal/
https://icricketcritique.com/so-the-perth-test/
https://icricketcritique.com/indias-likely-playing-eleven/
https://icricketcritique.com/why-protect-kohli/
https://icricketcritique.com/a-thorough-display/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-australian-team-is-in-disarray/
https://icricketcritique.com/some-interesting-pointers/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-adelaide-test/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-expected-adelaide-debacle-1/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-expected-adelaide-debacle-2/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-melbourne-test/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-g-day-one/
https://icricketcritique.com/30-minutes-of-madness/

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Rahul’s team came a cropper

Rahul’s team came a cropper

After the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the country witnessed a sight that was never seen on a cricket field. Alright, not the cricket field but the player’s change room. It

The Indian cricket pitches

Whenever, a side from one of England, Australia, New Zealand comes to India, the one talking point is about the pitches. There will be lot of editorials on their newspapers stating that a minefield is awaiting their teams during their visit. Every pitch in any Test series will be doctored to suit the Indian spinners or to stump the visitors because of their lack of ability against spin. However, none of them thinks about the poor technique displayed by the visitors against spin. Not the perfect one but a better technique would have ensured that they prevail. Having said that, the Indian cricket pitches will probably have to change. Defeating India in India is one of the most toughest in the cricketing world. Defeating Australia and defeating South Africa are the other tough propositions. I have not included England or New Zealand because both the teams have lost rather a few games more than that is allowed. Over the last 23 years, India have lost less than 10 Tests at home with only 2 series losses. That is an incredible record to boast about. The sheer dominance at home is something no other team could achieve. Accusation against the team Despite that, the talk invariably turns to the pitches. There were lot of accusations on the Indian team that they will not be able to win so many games if the pitches weren’t so spin friendly. A few years ago, in 2015, against South Africa, both the teams, India and South Africa were unable to cross 300 once because the pitches turned square from ball one. The Nagpur pitch for the 3rd Test was rated poor. It left Kohli fuming. “Well, there have been three scores of under 50 runs in South Africa but I haven’t seen any sort of articles on that. Teams have been bundled out under 100 for about six times in South Africa,” he said. “The situation in our country is highlighted a bit too much and that’s a fact. Because the only thing we talk about is the pitch and when we were in South Africa, the only thing we talked about was how badly we played. We are criticised for our techniques but when visitors don’t play well, it’s always the wicket.” It is true what Kohli had said. There are lot of games in Australia and South Africa that have not exceeded 3 days. Especially, in South Africa, the pitches are overly favourable to the fast bowlers. Since South Africa can churn out them by the dozen, they have always prepared pitches that has incredible pace and bounce. They have always maximised the home advantage and particularly against the Asian nations. WTC Points system is another reason Likewise, India is also justified in preparing pitches that does not suit the opposing batsmen. Here I say the opponent’s batsmen is because even the Indians are not that good against spinners any longer. Just look at the number of games the Indians were tied down by spinners in white ball cricket that has prevented them from scoring huge runs or chase down one. The situation is not that better in Tests either. Nowadays, spinning pitches are prepared not because it is comfortable for India but because it is uncomfortable for the opponents. One other factor that warrants results oriented pitches is the WTC points system. It awards 12 points for a win and only 4 for a draw. It places great importance in playing attacking aggressive brand of cricket. WTC points is a significant motivator. Teams need wins to be in contention to play the final. Where does the chances for winning most of the games lie? It is at home where you know the conditions and you know how the pitches will behave. Hence, the need to prepare pitches where you give your team the maximum chance to win. “There is a huge premium on results,” Dravid said before the fourth Test. “You draw a game like Kanpur against New Zealand, where you take nine wickets in the second innings, you draw that game and that sets you back, in a home game. “Every team is getting results at home or are putting in really good performances at home, so there is a premium on results. You get four points for a draw and you get 12 for a win, so there is a premium on that, there’s no question about it.” It is time to return The downside of all this is that the averages and the performances of the batsmen have dropped drastically and the spinners are having inflated strike rates and averages. One will only have to compare the statistics of both Ashwin and Jadeja with their away record. It will clearly establish the fact that these two spinners, ofcourse they are good, are not as great as they are made out to be. Perhaps, the time has come to return to the more batting pitches that helped the Indian batsmen outscore their opponents. The spinners will have to really use their guile and intelligence to pick up wickets rather than just drop the ball and leave the rest to the pitches. There was a period, against England in 2017, where both the teams amassed runs and yet, India won handsomely 4-0. Ashwin & Jadeja still emerged as the highest wicket takers but they had to move out of their comfort zone. The Indian fast bowlers too had long bowling sessions. This was in stark contrast to how Bumrah asked to be left out of the squad in 2020 against England because he hardly had to bowl. Wrapping up the Indian cricket pitches The problem is not the turn but the dust that comes out of the pitch everytime there is an activity. Sri Lankan pitches have also turned but the soil does not come out. India have had similar pitches and it is time to return to that. 2 and 3 day games will kill the game. Let the batsmen be able to bat confidently. For inspiration, India will only have to think about the pitches against England in 2017.

Whenever, a side from one of England, Australia, New Zealand comes to India, the one talking point is about the pitches. There will be lot of editorials on their newspapers

The retirement of the seniors

The retirement of the seniors

Well, it was much expected. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jadeja were expected to retire from T20 at the end of the World Cup. It didn’t come out of the