I purposely restrained myself from posting yesterday to avoid posting on immediate emotion of an absolutely draining test match, one of the modern classics for sure. It has become a repeat feature of India's overseas tours to let go of winning positions. I list a few in recent memory since 2014.
i) GABBA, 2014: India score 400 (should've got to 500) and have Australia at 230/7. Let Johnson and Starc get runs and lost the game by 4 wickets.
ii) Nottingham 2014: England are 220/9 and almost 200 adrift India's first innings score. Root and Anderson get a 200 run partnership and draw the game.
iii) Galle 2015: India mess up a 180 run chase and lose the first test. They do win the series though.
iv) Auckland 2014: Chasing 380 odd, India are almost cruising at 220/2 but end up losing by 40 runs.
v) Adelaide 2014: Kohli twin hundreds in vain as India let go of an exceptional opportunity to chase 363 on the final day after having been just 120 away with 8 wickets in hand going into tea.
iv) Cape Town and Centurion (2018): Chasing modest targets of 200 and 283, we mess up the chases yet again.
That followed by this chase means that chasing in overseas tests is our Achilles heels. Yet, the optimistic side of me does point out that we get ourselves into winning positions more often than other international sides do away from home. In that regards, we are well in with a chance in this series and won't give it away like in 2011 or 2014. That is one side of Kohli's leadership one must appreciate. The team will get back and fight. However, it is the tactical side of his leadership which is a real worry, especially with a coach like Shastri who is just there for the pot. As someone pointed out, this side does not lack batsmen who can score well overseas. In fact, we have more than a few who have decent away records. Yet, the repeated emphasis on 'No position is fixed. Noone can take their place for granted.' by Shastri and Kohli has really made people insecure for places and this shows in their game.
Lets look at Rahane and Pujara's cases to start with. Right until the end of the home series against NZ (played on some spicy tracks), Rahane was our best test batsman, and the most consistent one at that. He had scored runs against all attacks and all conditions till then. The team management kept shuffling him around at the same time in ODIs and kept playing him at random positions and he lost rhythm in the process. That coincided with an injury during the England series where he sat out and Nair scored that 300. There were unncesessary talks of his place being under threat (for absolutely no reason) after he returned from injury. He scored crucial runs against Australia at Dharamsala and Bangalore and looked like getting back into form. However, leading into the SA tour, the useless duo of Shastri and Kohli played a proven overseas failure in Sharma ahead of Rahane further denting his confidence. Kohli's remarks ahead of the Centurion test further adds to the chaos. We now have a situation where Rahane looks clueless. A batsman who arguably has the best attacking game against pace/seam bowling is not getting out to half-hearted strokes and doesn't seem to be commiting to his strokes. All you need in this case to assure him of a full series and not make statements about noone being indispensable during press conferences.
Pujara too, to a lesser extent has been through the same kind of issues where the captain and coach have come down on his batting tempo, strike rates etc in press conferences leaving the player confused. The same could be seen in Vijay's case as well where a player so sure of his off-stump now is fishing outside the off stump. Rahul started this tour off on such a high. The team management follows it up by dropping him in ODIs for Suresh Raina! Such short-sightedness. He could've gone into this test series full of confidence had he been assured of his place before the first test. Dropping Pujara and retaining Dhawan (scored a pair in the game against Essex) sends confusing signals not just ti Pujara but the other openers as well.
This team has the talent pool and thus will do reasonably well in the tests to even save the team management's face. Yet, we run the risk of losing seriously good batsmen in Rahane, Pujara and Rahul because of how they are being handled. Even under Ganguly, the legends had bad tours overseas. However, they could come back into form during the series because of how sure they were about their positions. Here, we have genuinely good batsmen under the pump but someone like Dhawan and Pandya keep getting the backing. Pandya has played all tests since his debut without being dropped. What has he done performance-wise to deserve that. This team management lacks a mature head who respects cricketing logic and commonsense. One cannot help but rue someone like Dravid not being around to help out quiet, introvert guys like Rahane and Pujara with their techniques and general temperament. It is so evident even from so very far that these guys look insecure about what mad decision this team management would make in the next game. Bhuvi got dropped after a 5-er at Cape Town, for heaven's sake!
I admire the way Kohli led from the front and took the came to the opposition. However, the fact is that had Malan taken his catch in the first innings, we would be criticising his batting today. Surety of his place in the side after that horrific 2014 tour and even that bad home series against Australia has resulted in Kohli coming back stronger. Imagine if some of the others in the side had the same surety of their places. This side has it in them to win the series, especially given how England struggled with the bat. Someone needs to show maturity and tell the key batsmen that they will get 3 more games come what may and can be free to express themselves. Someone like Rahul or Rahane can match Kohli in strokeplay and could be great counter-attacking options. Give them this series and stop backing FTBs like Rohit, Dhawan and Pandya time and again. Despite Pandya's second innings, he doesn't offer much to the side. Why not play Nair or even Jadeja in his place as a specialist option! This is test cricket, not T20.
Also, the lack of game sense is so apparent. Ishant is the best defensive tailender we have in this side. Yet, in both innings, when we needed someone to stay with the established batsman at the other end, we sent out Shami! I could see this from a thousand miles away. What does Shastri even bring to the table? No tactical acumen. I doubt if he has anything to offer on the technical front either. Sad.
