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InDepth headlines national business sports cricket regional entertainment technology world travel autos health | in-depth coverage > India-Pakistan Cricket Series 2005 > Indian cricket team in dire straits 23.17 IST 21st Apr 2005 By Agencies 
It may boast of possessing arguably the best batting line-up in the world, but at the moment there are not many who would dispute the fact that the Indian cricket team is in dire straits.It was just over a year ago that the Indian cricket team looked unstoppable to all barring the all-conquering Australians who too were given a fright in the four-Test series by Sourav Ganguly's highly motivated men. The high of the Test series in Australia, in which India nearly upset the Aussies' applecart at Sydney in the final Test, was followed by epochal victories in the three-Test and five-match One-Day International series in Pakistan against the country's archrivals. But all those heady days experienced by the 'Men in Blue' seem like distant memories now. The inability of virtually the same set of men to conquer Pakistan — who had been thrashed 3-0 by Australia Down Under immediately preceding the Indian tour — in the Test rubber followed by the humiliating defeat in the six-match one-day series, has raised a question mark over the Indian squad's real abilities. How quickly the cookie has crumbled for Ganguly and his band of wounded and tired warriors! The captain himself has an enquiry mark against his name in the light of his repeated failures in the entire series against Pakistan. He has also been slapped with a six-match ban for India's inability to maintain the required over-rate in successive matches. He has already served out two of those and would have to miss four more ODIs during the forthcoming tri-series in Sri Lanka. And to make matters worse for the team is the departure of coach John Wright, much admired and respected by the team members, from the scene at the end of it all. It's debatable how much the imminent departure of Wright contributed to the team's dwindling fortunes in the series against Pakistan. The thought must have been lingering at the back of every team members' and coach's mind that this is his last series. We have seen how an emotional attachment with a particular member of the team can lead to its focus being diverted a bit to the detriment of its performance in Steve Waugh's case when India toured Down Under. The Waugh factor did play a part in the Australian team's slightly below-par show in 2003-04 against India, indicated by the same squad's superb display under the more aggressive Ricky Ponting after Waugh's retirement. Wright's imminent departure notwithstanding, India lost a golden chance of starting the tour on a morale-boosting note by failing to squash a down-and-out Pakistan mercilessly under its feet at Mohali in the opening Test. The way the Indians allowed Pakistan to battle to a draw on the final day, after the visitors had been staring defeat in the face at 10 for 3, was perhaps the turning point of the riveting contest. The draw from the jaws of defeat gained by Pakistan in the first Test gave them the confidence that the Indian team was not as unbeatable at home as the hosts seemed to be when they arrived in India. The Pakistan think tank also realised that to stop India from running away with the Test rubber, they needed to stop Virender Sehwag's assault at the top of the order. More than anyone else, it has been Sehwag who has taken the opposition by its horns at the beginning of recent Test rubbers with his amazing pyrotechnics. It happened in Australia, in Pakistan, against the Aussies at home and versus South Africa too. The key to the Indian batting has been the freedom with which the Delhi marauder has batted and the subsequent anchoring efforts of Rahul Dravid. Dent the Sehwag factor quickly and the opposition has a chance to get at Ganguly's men has been the mantra which the Indian team's rivals have learned. Putting into practise this dictum was far more difficult, but once that was done the soft underbelly of the Indian middle-order was exposed in the last Test in Bangalore and in the later part of the one-day series. India's pace finds of last season, Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji, also went off the boil in the aftermath of injuries and the hosts' pace attack lacked the sting of last year. Pakistan struggled against Anil Kumble when the wicket suited him, but were untroubled on shirtfronts in the one-day series when he played in Kanpur. The World Cup is less than 24 months away and the steep decline in the team's fortunes in the limited over format after the high when India reached the finale of the last episode of the mega event in South Africa is alarming. Cracks have appeared in the middle-order, but more depressing is the fact that the domestic scene, treated so shabbily by the BCCI, has failed to throw up quality players who can step in to fill the breach once the established stars fade away. Added to all these setbacks on the field of play have been the infighting and shenanigans within the Indian cricket board's precincts, which has disgusted the fans of the game. Six years ago Indian cricket was at crossroads — as it finds itself now — in the wake of the match-fixing scandal, but at that time at least the BCCI was united. At present the board sports a fractured facade and there are serious issues at hand, including finding a successor to Wright, which need to be resolved for the good of the game. The sooner the warring factions bury their differences the better it would be for the well-being of the most passionately followed sport in the country. in-depth coverage > India-Pakistan Cricket Series 2005 > |
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