Before you proceed to read trust in senior citizens, read part one here.
Trust in over the hill senior citizens
Rahane and Pujara. I have said and written enough about these over the hill, past their sell by date players. They have again proved what a waste of space. They hardly had a clue where the ball was. Atleast Pujara played decent amount of deliveries but Rahane did not even bother. When Rahane walks into the ground, the wickets column on the scoreboard slowly changes to India 4 down already because it was inevitable. The only question was whether he will be out of the first ball or the 12th ball. Pujara as usual stood at the crease but failed to score runs. However, I will again blame Kohli and Dravid for Purane’s failure. Both of them had given enough reasons for them to be dropped. If they are still picked ahead of deserving candidates like Vihari, Gill and Iyer, the fault lies with the captain and the coach.
The Indian batting coach, Vikram Rathour,
“As far as Pujara and Rahane are concerned, they are trying their best, they are giving their best. Rahane was in really good touch but unfortunately, he got out, so has Pujara. We need to be patient as long as they are trying their best, giving their best as coaching unit we are fine.”
I really cannot tell whether Rathour knows the meaning of being patient. You can be patient for a couple of years but not for 5-6 years as in Rahane’s case. It is like failures does not matter. It does not come with a burden of being dropped. Pujara and Rahane never felt the pressure to score runs because the team management seems to have placed them in a cocoon. They had become immune to the outside noise.
The form of these old gentlemen plus the unknown of Mayank Agarwal’s ability to cope with steep bounce was one more reason to ditch the 5 bowler theory. How did Kohli put his trust on a batting lineup whose combined ability to score more than 300 consistently is beyond every connoisseur’s mind. Common sense and wisdom will dictate to play the extra batsman when you are not sure whether the top 5 will score runs but Kohli’s ego got in the way. He will have none of it. He must have thought that he is such a genius that whatever he wishes will come true.
The Ashwin conundrum
Much was expected of Ashwin. In Jadeja’s absence, Ashwin was expected to force the door down and make it impossible to drop him outside of India. He was anticipated to make it difficult for Jadeja to reclaim his spot. He was more than expected to retain the spinning allrounder spot to himself. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Instead, he has given the spot in a platter back to Jadeja. After he was expelled from all the games in England, if one had thought that Ashwin will definitely prove to the doubters that it is him and him only who has the right to a spot in the team, Ashwin had called their bluff. Not only did he not have any role to play with the ball, he hardly contributed with the bat except for a brief 46 at Johannesburg.
When the series was in the balance and for once when Pant was playing sensibly, Ashwin goes after a wide one and promptly gets out. A gutsy and bloody rearguard at that stage and with Pant batting particularly well, the target could have been in the realms of 325. Ashwin is known to analyse a lot of things diligently. Did he fail to analyse that in the absence of any significant impact with the ball, playing the last innings of the series, a substantial contribution with the bat would not only have helped India win the test and thereby the series but it would have meant all the talks of Ashwin being a sub-continent specialist could have been put to rest?
It was again Kohli’s fault
Again, I will fault Kohli. It was clear that Ashwin is not going to bowl too many overs to have an impact with the ball. It was also clear that his batting wasn’t good enough for those bouncy pitches. What nonsense prompted him to play Ashwin as an allrounder?
After his marathon interview to www.espncricinfo.com, in which Ashwin blamed virtually everything and everyone under the Sun except himself for his failures, he has actually vindicated Manjrekar’s comments about him of not being a force outside of India. He mocked Manjrekar at that time but now he must feel stupid. I really doubt whether Ashwin will ever get such an opportunity to correct his mistakes. He is 34. With his lack of fitness and India not expected to tour again for another couple of years, it is highly likely that Ashwin may even retire before the next away leg. He may never have a 5-fer in the SENA countries.
I sincerely wish that he does not overtake Kumble as the highest Indian wicket taker because Kumble was much better as a bowler and as a person.
Indian bowlers are good but not great
The inability of the Indian bowlers to defend low scores in another area of concern. India possess a good, I am not calling them great, bowling attack with Bumrah leading from the front. However, the repeated incapability to defend is something that must be addressed. Twice against South Africa, the WTC final, there was one test in New Zealand and a host of games stands as proof. They were not even able to run the opposition close. In all the instances it was a comfortable victory for the opposition.
Bumrah, for all his brilliance is failing to run through the opposition repeatedly. He has played 27 tests and more than 97% of those games under conditions favourable to the seamer and yet, he hasn’t taken a single 10-fer. Though he picked up 12 wickets, it cost 23 runs per wicket when the South African bowlers took their in less than 20. Shami too did not make much inroads. It fell on the much maligned Shardul Thakur to average less than 20. All the major South African bowlers struck at less than 20. Therein lies a major problem.
Dravid and the support staff has equal share of the blame
I have harped enough about Kohli but that doesn’t mean the management team of Dravid, Rathour, Mhambrey and the galaxy of support staff can escape blame. Especially Dravid. When Dravid took over, he was hailed as a messiah. He was thought of someone who will take the team to the next level. He was portrayed as someone who could take the tough decisions. However, Dravid failed spectacularly. He has brought the team right to where they were when he was playing. Not dropping either or both of Rahane and Pujara, playing with 5 specialist batsmen, no role for Ashwin, inability of the bowlers to defend scores or the batsmen to post substantial scores, all of these are very much Dravid’s failure as that of Kohli’s.
He must have put his foot down and must have effected the changes. Instead his choose to sit idle and do nothing. This came as a rude shock. Was he afraid that if he goes against Kohli his job may not be secure? I do not think Dravid cares about that because he is too proud to toe anyone’s line. He is much more interested in the success of the team. So why then did Dravid not do anything? I guess only Dravid will have an answer for this.
Please proceed to read volume 3 of my rant.