Seldom do your weaknesses remain hidden for a long time. Like the boxed spring, they erupt as soon as the lid is removed. Indian lid, the famed batting didn’t work this series, and it was all kibosh for the Indian team. English bowlers were exemplary on their wickets, and trumped the Indian batsmen. Our bowlers on the other hand couldn’t match them, so the defeat was inevitable. You can sum up comprehensively this English summer in these few words.
India was able to maintain its top ranking for the last 18 months because of their match-winners and not because of their team. Batting ensured that the team didn’t lose many matches, and a few exemplary bowling performances nicked one or two wins. Most of India’s last series wins or draws have been thus 1-0 or 1-1 or likewise. These were enough to sustain the hold. But the pattern couldn’t have been repeated when confronted with a better team. It was a long-drawn conclusion, so the recent drubbing doesn’t come as a surprise to me.
Instead I think it might give India the need and space to rethink its future. The series defeat could be an elixir of sorts, ala the World Cup first-round exit of 2007. No better time now to take Test Matches on priority and not by default, and groom both batsmen and bowlers for their demands. It won’t happen though. Wins back in home grounds will push these concerns back into the shed until we lose again overseas, and then again back into shed …. the ugly pattern which had been a theme in the 90s. This also retrospectively brings into perspective how great our batting had been during the last decade, who transcended the system to best the conditions overseas. Alas, we realize things when they are about to leave us.
It is not an official farewell to the team though. They can again climb back to the top, but the prospects look bleak. Live with it. And on the same note, also appreciate the newly crowned champions, the English cricket team. They deserve to be number one, as they have risen here by winning matches and not jugglery, as the Indian team had during their stay. They ought not to be compared and scrutinized like a flogged and crossed king. We will have time to judge their worth when they come to the subcontinent. But for the time being, rethink or rejoice, depending on which side of the planet you belong to.
