For the Indian cricket team, the year could not have got off to a worse start. While the Indian captain had a bagful of excuses on the tour of England, it’s empty for want of a legitimate reason why India still cannot field a team that can compete, leave alone win.
The monsoon drew a dampener for Indian cricket fans who were hit by a deluge of poor Indian performances backed conveniently by a string of injuries that made it impossible for the team to have any sense of cohesion or strategy. However, the tour of Australia, although only two Tests old, has shown that the 4-0 defeat in the series to England were no fluke but just the shape of things to come if India did not get their act right. The home series against the West Indies was a distraction and the same story has begun to unfold in Australia.
After two Tests where India had their chances albeit in small patches but failed rather timidly in their attempt to overcome a transitional Australian team revealed one major difference between the two teams: the sheer lack of intensity from the Indian team and the exuberant determination in the Australian team. That brings into question Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy only from the possible point of view of being able to inject in the team the sense of urgency to turn around the fact that India have now lost six Test on the trot abroad and it is going to be a matter of serious pride that India eke out at least one win from the remaining two Test matches if they are to avoid a scathing witch hunt that is going to perhaps cost the captain more than anybody else although there is an entire team and set up that needs to be questioned with the kind of feeble bowling attack being presented and the lack of batting resistance that has prevented India from scoring over 300 more often than not.
What has come to hurt the Indian cricket team the most is the fact that they have been humiliated not by a close margin but rather by a glaring gap between the intensity of the two teams. While the veteran batsmen are holding onto their positions despite the lack of motivated batting, the lack of plot in the bowling department is costing India dearly. And it appears the Indian team is either too tired, too clueless or too arrogant to be affected even by such defeat as was reflected in the manner in which some of the Indian cricketers spoke even in the face of defeat and thereafter. Not much can be expected to change with attitudes like that.
