JOIN USIn big Australian grounds, India's fitness and fielding issues stand exposed
Some defeats linger, leaving behind a bitter aftertaste of missed opportunities and what-might-have-beens. Others are easier to digest, as palatable as losses can be. It’s hard to say to which category India’s five-wicket loss to South Africa belongs.
Yes, a litany of fielding errors, not least Virat Kohli’s drop of Aiden Markram, stymied India’s charge towards a sensational win when they had just 133 to defend. Yes, KL Rahul’s continuing awful patch is now beginning to snowball into a serious problem.
Yes, India’s potential lack of collective fitness is starting to stand exposed on the larger grounds in Australia. Yes, the tryst with Dinesh Karthik isn’t quite paying off when it matters the most. Yes, India were comfortably off the boil at the Optus Stadium on Sunday night. The pretty picture sure ain’t pretty.
And yet, it’s unlikely that the think-tank will look at this defeat as anything more than a minor blip, definitely a setback but not the end of the world. After all, they could argue, these aren’t conditions you encounter every day in India. Anywhere in the world, for that matter. And all other things being equal, these aren’t conditions India will be confronted with again in this T20 World Cup, what with their next two Super 12 Group 2 games pencilled in for Adelaide and Melbourne, and the knockouts scheduled for Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, which will host the grand final in less than a fortnight’s time.
Furthermore, India’s future continues to remain in their own hands. Victories against Bangladesh on Wednesday and Zimbabwe next Sunday will guarantee them a place in the last four, no matter how other results pan out. On pedigree and current form, India should secure full points from both games if the weather holds up, but Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid won’t be unaware of the perils of taking things for granted.
It’s too late now for anything to be done from a fitness perspective, but it’s clear that this isn’t the fittest, fastest Indian cricket team by any stretch of the imagination. Of all the formats, the 20-over variety is the one which exposes fitness, and by extension fielding, inadequacies. There is no place to ‘hide’ fielders, the slightest laxity is punished mercilessly.
Throw in the vast grounds here, which test strength, speed and endurance in the legs and the power of the throwing arms, and an unhazy picture emerges of what could loom as India’s biggest challenge going deeper into the tournament.
It’s no secret that this Indian side is largely bereft of ‘athletes’. From being one of the best fielding units worldwide not so long back, India have downgraded to being passable, at best, in the park. Outside of Kohli and Hardik Pandya, there are few that can eat up ground rapidly or fire the ball flat from the deep. To say that the team is ‘carrying’ a few fielders might appear unbecoming and insensitive, but competitive sport isn’t for the touchy and there is nothing to be gained by papering over harsh realities.
Ironically, the fittest and fastest fielder in the squad was culpable of the most serious fielding error on Sunday. Kohli is the least likely candidate to embrace complacency on the park, so the dropped catch has to go down as one of those strange things that happen on the cricket field where pressure can impact even the most seasoned crazily.
It’s those around him that need to shape up. A run saved here, a direct hit scored there can often prove to be the decisive difference in games of thin margins, and while India can’t transform overnight into a fighting fit, top-quality fielding outfit, they must focus more intently on the one-percenters whose whole adds up to a lot more than the sum of its parts.
(R Kaushik is a senior cricket writer)