Struggle in foreign soil continues for India
Yet again India has failed to prove their talents outside subcontinent. India after the retirement of greats like Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly have failed to recover from the hands of defeat. Especially outside Asia, India's both bowling and batting departments looked very pathetic. Though the players are capable of playing excellent cricket, lack of commitment and concentration has led them to these many defeats. The recent test series against England was an example of our Indian Test cricket team disaster. England convincingly won India in this series 3-1. Our top class batting order was shattered into pieces by England's fiery bowling attack. Also our bowling department was below par when compared to that of opposition team. Indian team has been positioned 5th in ICC test championship ranking after this series.
Virat Kohli, one of the best player of Indian cricket in all three formats has also struggled in this series. His batting average was around 12.5 in this series. This form of Kohli led to a major setback for team India. Hopes were shown by Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane at the start of the series but they too became prey of these English bowlers in later stages. They too became inconsistent and lacked the technique of playing swinging balls. Still the roles of Staurt Binny and Ravindra Jadeja are quesionable. Gambhir comeback series will most probably become his final test series. He never came out with aggression and proved his talent.
Bowlers were not bowling to the conditions of England. When our batsmen were struggling to get even a double figure score, English batsmen were scoring fifties and hundreds very easily. Buvaneshwar Kumar and Mohamed Shami were the swinging bowlers we had in our department. But with their lack of pace, batsmen hammered them to all parts of the ground. Varun Aaron, one of the fastest India has ever produced, bowled fast but was lagging in line. He bowled wide to batsmen and those were easy picks for them. R Ashwin bowling was below average and Ishant Sharma was erring in line. Fielding too created big problems for India. Catches were dropped at slips and gully, run out chances were missed and brought total disaster to India. Captain Dhoni alone cannot be blamed for series loss as it is the responsibility of every player to perform well and collective effort can bring win to India.
Indian team has to restore from their faults. India plays with west Indies before touring Australia. So players have to bring back their form in upcoming series against West Indies.
photo courtesy: espncricinfo
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.