The last year has been a poor one for Indian cricket, huge 4-0 defeats away to England and Australia, followed by a mediocre performance in the World t20. This was only complimented by some average work against the West Indies and New Zealand. Then after a good start, they were slaughtered by England in the home series. The problems amass for Coach Duncan Fletcher and Captain MS Dhoni. But how can India solve their problems?
It is their underperforming, strong batting line-up that leads the difficulties. The opening batsmen have scored one century between them in the last 2 years in test cricket. The run-scoring machine that led the sides batting for the last 23 years has not scored in tests since 2010. Their famous batting quartet is no more with young inexperienced players coming in as replacements. The captain is being run out on 99 after 10 innings of poor batting. And the bowlers, all but one has shown no improvement in their game. Even the coach is doing a bad job. It seems as if he is spending more time on football than cricket, as Ravi Shastri quoted.
But is it all bad for Indian cricket? I don’t think so. They have shown some signs of good cricket. The Virat Kohli-MS Dhoni partnership in Nagpur showed the excellence in how the Indian deadly line-up can put away a bowling attack. Ravi Ashwin’s recent sparks with the bat show that may be a true Indian all-rounder has been found. Cheteshwar Pujara’s centuries in the first two matches are good signs for the future of Indian cricket. And Umesh Yadav’s performance, before his injury, in the first test show that he could do what Zaheer Khan has done for the last 10 years.
Where could they improve and get rid of these mistakes? Maybe changing the captain for now wouldn’t be too bad an idea. Removing Dhoni from the team would be foolish as he has shown his true quality with the bat in Nagpur, but maybe a change in captain and coach too would help and remove pressure from Dhoni and let him concentrate on his own game.
Gambhir has got too many starts but has not yet capitalised on them and made them into match winning scores. To do this he must be more patient and learn how to face pace more appropriately. Sehwag, however, (after his poor series only highlighted by a century in Ahmedabad) should be dropped and a new young batsman should come in to replace him. He needs to realise that he can’t take his place for granted and will have to work hard and earn his place in the team. Only last year was he scoring 100’s in ODI non-stop and depolarising any bowler that stepped in his way.
The time has come for the Little Master to finally step down. After 2 decades of controlling and commanding the batting he has come to the end. Time has caught up with him and he is no longer the prolific batsman that scored centuries here, there and everywhere. Though still a great example he has to stop somewhere. I think Tendulkar’s time is up.
The young middle order needs to continue to improve and not hesitate around them. The atmosphere isn’t a welcoming one in the dressing room with all this commotion going on, however they are playing very well.
The bowling needs a change too. For over a decade we have seen ZAK and Harbhajan Singh lead the bowling, but that is no longer the case. India will have to bring in fresh younger player now or else when it does get to the time of Zaheer and Bhaji’s departure, they will be left with debutants to fill the gaps. The likes of Umesh Yadav and Irfan Pathan need to be brought into the team. Ishant Sharma, only 23, seems to be a great player in the making. Praveen Kumar, the swing bowler, must come back into the side to give variety in the bowling. All-rounders who can bowl just as well as they can bat need to be developed and selected. And great spinners of the future need to be discovered.
Finally the team India needs to change its thought process. Only in 2011 they were the most feared team sitting at the top of the ladder. But now teams such as Bangladesh are beating them. They are getting closer to being called the underdogs. They need to approach games with more confidence and will. Sloppy fielding will need to be a factor to improve upon as well.
If some changes are made then the Indian team will be able to rebuild and find that devastating form that brought them much success not too long ago.