Ad mist all the hype this series generated particularly being a fight between the top 2 teams, England has emerged clear winner after the first 2 tests with India giving absolutely no competition to a rampaging England. India has lost both the tests comprehensively. Even though they may argue of not having a full strength team, the loopholes can't be ignored and so I try to list 5 reasons for India's loss.
1. England's Wagging Tail- England's tail continued to wag and spoiled Indian bowler's heartiest efforts. India reduced England to 124-8 in the first innings of the 2nd test. But just when India had to do the wrap up work, they allowed Broad to get away and helped them score a decent 221. In the 2nd innings they had England at 339-6 but then yet again the tail wagged again and this time Bresnan took England past 500 when India could have folded them up for 400 odd runs with an achievable target of around 340. Its frustrating when you get the best batsmen out but you just can't take the remaining wickets. It was a result of lackluster bowling and excess experimentation on tailenders and most importantly bad field placements. I mean even if the tailender is smacking a few balls , How can you set your field back knowing that the bowling which got the top order can easily account for the lower order as well.
2. India's Domino Style Batting- This is one of the major reasons why India failed in the 2nd test. In both the innings whenever one wicket fell , 2 followed in quick succession for India. India were placed at 267-4 when they could have stretched the lead to 200 runs or so but as soon as Yuvraj fell Indian batsmen fell like dominoes as India folded for 288. India's old batting nightmares are back as India again stares at repeated batting collapses. We all remember the collapses in the World cup and now in Tests as well. In the 2nd innings we had absolutely no chance as the 5 Indian wickets fell pretty early. Bhajji and Tendulkar showed that it was not that difficult to play the old ball but till then India had no batsman left from the top order. Lack of partnerships was the nemesis for India in the 2nd test.
3. IPL effect on youngsters- In the famed Indian batting line-up there were 3 future test players like Yuvraj, Raina and Mukund. And each one of them showed the limited overs habit in Test Cricket. Mukund on a seaming pitch pushes the ball. Something which you see in T20's. Another example was when Raina was darted with short balls with a deep fine leg. As expected Raina in his IPL habits would hook and thus got caught out at deep fine leg. Indian grounds in IPL are small so maybe he could have got the six there but in test cricket this is not acceptable. Yuvraj was playing expensive drives early on knowing its a test match where there will be 4 slips and a gully so edges would be caught. These 3 cannot hope to tackle test match bowling with these T20 habits.
4. Defensive Field setting- This surprised everyone as Dhoni is known to be an attacking captain who sets attacking fields. But he was completely different this time. When Broad started smashing the ball in the first innings, Dhoni in a very defensive approach decided to keep fielders at boundaries instead of catching positions to stop the flow of runs. How foolish was that considering Broad is a taileneder who could have got out in the slips like the other batsmen. Then in the 2nd innings our dear captain refused to keep a third man and a fine leg despite almost 180-200 runs being scored in that region. Instead he kept fielders at positions like deep backward point and deep square leg. This way neither he could stop the runs flowing off the edges in the 3rd man area nor could the well timed shots off the covers could be stopped. England scored more than 400 runs on the 3rd day. Had the field settings been proper and accurate, India could have stopped England from atleast scoring so many runs.
5. Bruised Leader- Dhoni who has led India to victory in almost every prestigious tournament and who had been India's strength was looking weak. His batting form has dipped to the lowest in his career. His keeping is miserable in the series. His decisions have not paid off. And the team does not look like a champion unit it used to look like. It seems Dhoni's Midas touch is off for a vacation as every decision continues to backfire. Whenever the team needed him, he disappointed and even behind the stumps he gave away extra runs and spilled important catches. Without the leader leading the way, how could we expect the Indian team to tame the English in their own backyard.
1. England's Wagging Tail- England's tail continued to wag and spoiled Indian bowler's heartiest efforts. India reduced England to 124-8 in the first innings of the 2nd test. But just when India had to do the wrap up work, they allowed Broad to get away and helped them score a decent 221. In the 2nd innings they had England at 339-6 but then yet again the tail wagged again and this time Bresnan took England past 500 when India could have folded them up for 400 odd runs with an achievable target of around 340. Its frustrating when you get the best batsmen out but you just can't take the remaining wickets. It was a result of lackluster bowling and excess experimentation on tailenders and most importantly bad field placements. I mean even if the tailender is smacking a few balls , How can you set your field back knowing that the bowling which got the top order can easily account for the lower order as well.
2. India's Domino Style Batting- This is one of the major reasons why India failed in the 2nd test. In both the innings whenever one wicket fell , 2 followed in quick succession for India. India were placed at 267-4 when they could have stretched the lead to 200 runs or so but as soon as Yuvraj fell Indian batsmen fell like dominoes as India folded for 288. India's old batting nightmares are back as India again stares at repeated batting collapses. We all remember the collapses in the World cup and now in Tests as well. In the 2nd innings we had absolutely no chance as the 5 Indian wickets fell pretty early. Bhajji and Tendulkar showed that it was not that difficult to play the old ball but till then India had no batsman left from the top order. Lack of partnerships was the nemesis for India in the 2nd test.
3. IPL effect on youngsters- In the famed Indian batting line-up there were 3 future test players like Yuvraj, Raina and Mukund. And each one of them showed the limited overs habit in Test Cricket. Mukund on a seaming pitch pushes the ball. Something which you see in T20's. Another example was when Raina was darted with short balls with a deep fine leg. As expected Raina in his IPL habits would hook and thus got caught out at deep fine leg. Indian grounds in IPL are small so maybe he could have got the six there but in test cricket this is not acceptable. Yuvraj was playing expensive drives early on knowing its a test match where there will be 4 slips and a gully so edges would be caught. These 3 cannot hope to tackle test match bowling with these T20 habits.
4. Defensive Field setting- This surprised everyone as Dhoni is known to be an attacking captain who sets attacking fields. But he was completely different this time. When Broad started smashing the ball in the first innings, Dhoni in a very defensive approach decided to keep fielders at boundaries instead of catching positions to stop the flow of runs. How foolish was that considering Broad is a taileneder who could have got out in the slips like the other batsmen. Then in the 2nd innings our dear captain refused to keep a third man and a fine leg despite almost 180-200 runs being scored in that region. Instead he kept fielders at positions like deep backward point and deep square leg. This way neither he could stop the runs flowing off the edges in the 3rd man area nor could the well timed shots off the covers could be stopped. England scored more than 400 runs on the 3rd day. Had the field settings been proper and accurate, India could have stopped England from atleast scoring so many runs.
5. Bruised Leader- Dhoni who has led India to victory in almost every prestigious tournament and who had been India's strength was looking weak. His batting form has dipped to the lowest in his career. His keeping is miserable in the series. His decisions have not paid off. And the team does not look like a champion unit it used to look like. It seems Dhoni's Midas touch is off for a vacation as every decision continues to backfire. Whenever the team needed him, he disappointed and even behind the stumps he gave away extra runs and spilled important catches. Without the leader leading the way, how could we expect the Indian team to tame the English in their own backyard.
how about VS and ZK putting self before country?
ReplyDeleteits pretty easy to say that they should not have chosen the IPL over international matches. But after being paid so much i dont think they cud skip the bcci's brainchild with no international matches at that particular time.
ReplyDeletejust because you have a reason to do something doesn't mean you should do it... :-)
ReplyDeleteThey dont have a choice! they have to play. The companies involved would lose money big time if the "star"Indian players dont show up. So they can very well force the players. they cannot play only if they dont accept the contract. and thats where their fault lies. They probably did not know that the 2011 IPL would have such kind of effects.
ReplyDelete