From pinnacle to pits

Cricket: BCCI needs to take some harsh decisions in the wake of Indias disastrous tour of England

Of the 10 matches scheduled against the hosts (four Tests, one T20 international and five one-dayers), India lost eight.

The best result the World champions managed was a dramatic tie in the rain-marred ODI at Lord’s while their potential chance to win the Chester-le-Street game was ruined due to inclement weather.

Some 20 months after claiming the number one Test ranking, India had to surrender the crown after a 4-0 whitewash by England and just over five months after being installed the champions in the 50-over format, they have slipped to the fifth position following a 0-3 defeat in the one-day series.

Even taking into account the fact that India were severely handicapped by an unprecedented number of injuries to several key players – 10 including Munaf Patel on the final night of the tour – the winless run across all formats will rankle skipper Dhoni for a long time to come. 

“There have been so many injuries ... I haven’t seen so many of them in the last five years, especially in one series,” rued Dhoni. “You can expect someone to miss or get injured, but in a span of one series, losing nine to 11 players is something I can’t really forget. This has been a crucial part of our (defeat in the) tour.”

India’s English sojourn began with Zaheer Khan pulling his right hamstring, limiting Dhoni’s bowling options on the first day of the opening Test at Lord’s, and ended in similar fashion with Munaf hurting his ankle after tumbling on a slippery Sophia Gardens’ turf during the final one-dayer. India appeared to be in control of the last match but Munaf’s exit once again forced Dhoni to employ part-timers to do the job, unsuccessfully.

While one can sympathise with Dhoni, who had an extremely tough task of managing things with limited resources all along the tour, the English summer should serve as a wake-up call for cricket’s financial super power. Whether it’s scheduling or injury-management, the Board of Control for Cricket in India needs to adopt a more professional approach if it wants to see the health of the game in good condition.

Of course, it would help a great deal if the injured players maintain some forthrightness with regard to their fitness, the cases in point being Zaheer and Virender Sehwag, who appeared some distance away from their best shape but were rushed into action.

“We have to see exactly what kind of injury it is,” noted Dhoni when asked if it was important for players to not to hide injuries. “Of course, playing a few games before coming (into a series) is a good thing but again, it’s a difficult one to choose from because you always think, maybe under the conditions, experience counts. What we have seen is you may be talented, especially in bowling, but you need the experience.

We tried to balance it in a way where your bowling department doesn’t look like a completely fresh set-up. You have to weigh all these things and see where exactly you stand.”

Zaheer’s injury in the first Test and Harbhajan Singh’s torn abdomen muscle during the course of matches meant Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar had to shoulder the extra burden, which eventually took a toll on them too. While Ishant had to miss the one-day series after hurting his ankle, Praveen had to sit out the final Test at The Oval with a similar problem.

Barring Rahul Dravid (in Tests), none of the batsmen made significant contributions, but the cracks in bowling were hard to gloss over. For long, batting has been India’s biggest strength. Bowlers, more often than not, have always had the luxury of defending big totals which didn’t materialise on this tour.

“I would like to have an honest opinion about it,” remarked Dhoni about the lessons learnt from the defeat. “Yes, we had a tough series but if you see the reasons why we had a bad series, all of a sudden there were a lot of injuries. Once the bowling department starts looking weak, the pressure shifts on to the batsmen. I think it’s a reflection of all these things.

Tough to manoeuvre
“This being a team sport, all three departments need to do well. You can’t just carry the team consistently for a long time on just one department. There are a quite a few things to be considered before we say we had a bad series because all these things had a big impact on the series. Playing with three bowlers in these conditions, it’s a bit tough to manoeuvre,” he explained.

As much as injuries scuttled India’s desire to fight the English on an even keel, the lack of proper preparation, a direct result of cramped schedule, hampered their ability to cope with the conditions.

“Whenever we went to practice, more often than not, it was raining and we had to practice indoors,” said Dhoni, pointing to lack of time to acclimatise. “The quality of the (net) bowlers was not great and at the same time, a couple of our bowlers had suffered injuries which meant we didn’t have ample resources to practice with. We were not able to use the practice games in the best possible manner either.

“The first match we played was more a first-class match and we were not able to play more than 11 players which means after playing a Test match or before playing a Test match, those 11 players had to be on the field for 90 overs. The same thing happened in the second practice game. If I am asked to play an official (practice) game, I would rather prefer playing a test game,” he reasoned.

If India are serious about lending more power to their financial muscle, they should use this tour as a watershed moment to plan the future in a more structured way. If that means taking some harsh decisions, so be it.