Lions at home, cubs abroad - India can do better!

India thrashed Australia 4-0 at home and then made a mockery of West Indies. Of course that was the series when Tendulkar hanged up his boots!

Since that fairwell series, India went to South African to conquer the land of Mandela. But then Proteas had other plans. Even though India put up a good show there, we lost out. Then we went to New Zealand to conquer the Kiwis. The Kiwis are on a comeback trail, and they are slowly fixing their foot on the ground. This series has seen an under-performing Dhawan, Rohit and Vijay for that matter. Kohli seems to be a man for all seasons plundering hundreds and half-centuries irrespective of the format he plays and showing why he is compared with the great little master Sachin Tendulkar. The opening pair of Dhawan and Rohit did not work in the one day series. Dhawan had problem with battling the short pitch stuff and also problems in countering the swinging ball. Rohit Sharma, tried to get in terms with the swinging ball by spending more time on the crease. The idea was good, and it was the right approach but somehow didn’t work out. Sometimes you have to congratulate the opposition team too, but when this happens series after series there surely has to be a problem with our team as well, isn’t it ??

In the absence of Zaheer Khan in the one day series, the bowling was a complete disaster. Shami Ahmed showed signs of good bowling and did come up with some devastating spells. But he was given much lesser support from the other pace bowlers like Ishant Sharma, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Varun Aaron. In one of the matches, even Shami who is India’s best pace bowler at the moment became expensive too. Te spin department did a decent job, mostly by Jadeja. Jadeja bowled with accuracy and kept it simple. He fetched wickets and scored runs. He almost won a match for India with his contribtion all-round. Ashwin doesn’t seem the bowler that he was in India. He surely needs to work on the basics and need to much more than “pause and deliver”. Ashwin as a batsman was better than most of the batsmen in the Indian ranks, but his bowling is what disappoints me and other Indian fans. More than the limited overs loss, it is the losses in Test cricket that matters the most. India have a capable team now, but it is just that we are not clicking as a team, and the Kiwis are doing certainly that. Rohit Sharma and Dhawan have got some deccent match practice and have notched up some good scores in the first test. Stll we went short. But loss in the first test could have been avoided had the bowlers bowled well.  John Wright rightly said, this team is capable of being the no.1 side in the world and capable of beating the Kiwis. India is capable of doing it, if we look for the right answers. Blaming the captain for the losses won’t do. A captain is as good as any other player, so no point in pushing the panic button on the captain. The likes of Vijay, Pujara, Rohit and Dhawan have to do well. They have done it in home, then why not they transfer their talent and attitude into runs like Dhoni and Kohli has done. Jadeja needs to show some more responsibility and temperament and prove that he can bat a bit too. He has done well as a bowler for India. He is India’s best spinner at the moment. If these things come in line  in the next test at Wellington, we ould be in for a cracker and the odds might get in favour of us. That could gradually lead to a rise of Indian cricket and we will eventually be back as the No.1 team sometime later. A good performance by the bowlers backed up by good batting from all the batsmen. That’s the way to go.

Redi in domum tuam India victor !