On Sunday evening, Joe Root was asked about the possibility of a 5-0 result against India. Forget what he replied, there was something peculiar about that question.
Sure, the nature of England’s dominance at Lord’s in the second Test clearly outlined that such a result is possible. But going into this series, nobody knew this thought could be entertained as early as after the second Test. Perhaps, the oddity of this wonderment referred to India’s current situation.
Across South Africa and England, India have played five overseas Tests in 2018. They have lost four. In January, they scored 209, 135, 307, 151, 187 and 247. This summer, they have scored 274, 162, 107 and 130. India’s highest scores on both these trips came whenever Virat Kohli scored a hundred – at Centurion and Birmingham.
In South Africa, the second-highest score to Kohli’s 153 was Hardik Pandya’s 93. Never mind how highly the team management rates him, talk about a proper batsman and the next best score against the Proteas was 50 by Cheteshwar Pujara in Johannesburg. In England, it is 33 not out and 29 by R Ashwin, 31 by Pandya and 26 by Shikhar Dhawan.
If this isn’t enough to exasperate you, sample Indian batsmen’s record on these two overseas tours so far.
- Murali Vijay – 128 runs in 5 Tests at average 12.88
- Shikhar Dhawan – 71 runs in 2 Tests at 17.75
- KL Rahul – 65 runs in 4 Tests at 8.12
- Cheteshwar Pujara – 118 runs in 4 Tests at 14.75
- Ajinkya Rahane – 48 runs in 3 Tests at 17.50
- Rohit Sharma (who played ahead of Rahane in South Africa and is now twiddling thumbs) – 78 runs in 2 Tests at 19.50
This is India’s batting core, the batsmen who have shaped this team since Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement in 2013. Five years later, when they should have advanced a couple steps in their development curve as batsmen, but none of them average even 20 runs in an overseas Test innings. To call it a mess would be an understatement. Nope – it is a disaster of epic proportions.
‘Mental issue’
It isn’t just about runs. Kohli was keen to point out after the Lord’s Test that this is ‘not technical, but a mental issue’. It is impossible to ask the individual protagonists what their pertinent reasons are. Indian cricketers don’t oblige with one-on-one interviews on foreign tours. Hell, they don’t give straight answers in press conferences either. You can only assume, or hope, there is better communication in the dressing room.
The obvious starting point is team selection, and it starts right at the top. In these five Tests, India have used two different opening combinations. If they had finished the South Africa tour with Vijay-Rahul opening, why did they not open against Afghanistan? Even if Dhawan scored a hundred in Bengaluru, he did score a pair against a second-string Essex attack. Surely, that cannot be a confidence boost ahead of facing Anderson and company.
Further, Dhawan had been dumped ahead of the 2017 home series against Australia, only for Vijay’s injury before the Sri Lankan tour to throw him another lifeline. It is staggering that the same opener who did not complete the 2013-’14 overseas’ cycle (Dhawan was dropped mid-series during both England and Australia tours) is still in contention four years later.
Of course, Vijay and Rahul have done themselves no favours. The former is currently struggling to find a balance between scoring and spending time at the crease. He was caught in two minds throughout that South Africa trip, and he has brought that indecision to England. The Vijay of 2014 would have dealt with Anderson’s late out-swinger (in the first innings) at Lord’s with a dead-straight bat. The Vijay of 2018 tried to flick it through square, and lost his off-stump.
At age 34, his career could be on its last legs but we won’t know that until it is too late. Indecision isn’t restricted to individual batsmen – there is a lack of willpower to make hard decisions from the selectors (example – Dhawan).
As concerns the latter, Rahul has never done well in limited-overs’ cricket when pushed down to middle from the opening slot. Whatever prompted this move in Test cricket, then? Even so, he wasn’t backed in Sri Lanka (2017) or earlier against England, when shuffled down the order. Rahul seems to not have recovered from that chop after the second ODI, and his confidence from a brilliant run during the home summer has evaporated. From a batsman looking to get forward on green tops in white-ball cricket this summer, he is now caught at the crease – in two minds.
Questionable calls
Meanwhile, with questionable tough calls, the management has cost the team dear. What sense was there in dropping Pujara – the only batsman to play proper County cricket this season? Cynics will argue against his lack of form for Yorkshire. Ask yourself this; do his runs in County cricket matter at all?
What matters is how he has learnt to bat time in these tough conditions, and it could be seen in the way he batted in the second innings at Lord’s, where he faced 87 balls for 17 runs. It could be seen in Cape Town (92 balls for 26 runs) and Johannesburg (179 balls for 50 runs) Tests, too.
Perhaps the only argument here is that Pujara does drop his strike-rate at times, which can theoretically put pressure on other batsmen. Runs do matter, but at the cost of facing fewer deliveries? Is dropping him the way to send across this message? Did Sourav Ganguly ever drop Rahul Dravid to tell him to hurry up?
Did Tendulkar drop Ganguly, Dravid and VVS Laxman (or Mohammad Azharuddin) when none of them scored on the tour of West Indies (1997) or Australia (1999)? Shouldering the twin burdens of captaincy and batting were heavier for Tendulkar than they are for Kohli today, yet he didn’t go about finding a new playing combination in every game.
It was an astounding moment in Cape Town when Rahane was left out for Rohit, sending a message out to the world that the Indian team management didn’t back its vice-captain (and its best overseas player), form be damned. Like a fast bowler, Rahane has come across as a batsman who thrives on confidence, and this is his lowest ebb in an otherwise stellar overseas career.
When in rhythm, on song, Rahane will leave countless deliveries like the one Stuart Broad bowled. Now, he is edging them, playing uncharacteristic loose shots, and confounding everyone – whatever happened to the batsman who scored a faultless hundred on a green-top Lord’s four years ago?
Stretch that bowling analogy a bit. When captain Kohli comes out and boasts that his bowling attack can take 20 wickets, he needs to understand that the likes of Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Shami have become potent bowlers learning through their overseas experiences over the past five years. Most importantly, they have learnt together whilst playing consecutive Tests together, whether home or away. Any tinkering that is done to offset conditions/opponents is restricted to one spot in the attack, not wholesale changes.
The likes of Pujara and Rahane, Rahul and Vijay, and the lower order as an offshoot, should have been similarly assimilating this learning and showcasing it on the grand stage at Lord’s (or elsewhere in 2018). This was a batting core assembled under MS Dhoni’s leadership, and gifted to his successor. It should have become a well-oiled machine by now, helping India conquer its overseas challenge.
Instead, Kohli, the batsman, is left fighting a lone battle for survival. And Kohli, the captain, has a train-wreck on his hands, with no idea how – or where – to start picking up the pieces from.