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Five reasons why India will continue to lose events like WTC final

Can we just blame the players? Or is the problem much bigger than fans can imagine?

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India''s Virat Kohli failed yet again in a big ICC event. — AFP
by

Rituraj Borkakoty

Published: Mon 12 Jun 2023, 11:31 PM

First things first — nobody really expected India to be ready for a bruising Test battle with Australia in English conditions just 10 days after the end of the two-month-long Indian Premier League.

So, in a way, the result was a foregone conclusion.

It was a small measure of victory that India actually managed to take the match into the fifth day after its bowlers conceded 469 runs in bowling-friendly conditions and its top-order batters, barring Ajinkya Rahane, struggled in the first innings.

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So here are the five reasons why India failed in yet another big ICC game and why it will continue to fail if things don't change.

The buck stops with BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the world's richest and most powerful board, continues to keep the IPL on top of its priority list.

Of course, the IPL has changed the financial side of the game completely.

But has the powerful cricket board managed to find the balance between the IPL and the national team's international commitments?

Every true cricket fan in India knows that answer.

Sadly, they are also resigned to the fact that things are unlikely to change.

The gruelling IPL schedule will continue to take a toll on India's all-format players.

Keeping in mind the WTC final in June, there was a talk about workload management for India's players before the IPL started in March.

But all of India's Test players, except for Cheteshwar Pujara, continued to play for their respective franchises in every game of the cash-rich tournament until the third week of May.

Given the financial dynamics, it's unlikely that the IPL franchise owners will let players decide on workload management.

And you can expect the BCCI to remain a silent spectator.

Stalwarts must share the blame

It's easy for past greats of the game to blame the players after every failure.

Sunil Gavaskar tore into the Indian batters, especially Virat Kohli, for the poor shot selection in the second innings.

Ravi Shastri, who until 2021 was coaching the Indian team, was also furious with the way Rohit Sharma got out in the second innings.

While few former players found a flaw in the bowling department, some others have rightly raised questions about the merit of not having Ravichandran Ashwin in the playing eleven.

But all these pundits remain tight-lipped when questions about the cricket board are raised in the media.

Having played the game at the highest level, these stalwarts are aware of the punishing schedule the modern players have to endure.

But you would rarely find any of the ex-players taking a stance on player burnout.

The curious case of Hardik Pandya

Does India have a batsman who could bowl?

Not in the team that played Australia at the Oval.

Cameron Green did that job well for Australia in the final, the tall all-rounder scored a crucial 25 in the first innings before picking up two important wickets to help Australia restrict India to 296 in its first innings.

He was also a constant menace for the Indians on the field with his sharp catching.

But does India have a player who can do a similar job?

Yes, it does and he is none other than Hardik Pandya.

Pandya's all-round skills — his flamboyant batting in the absence of Rishabh Pant and his seam bowling — would have given India the right balance on that Oval wicket.

But Pandya is no longer interested in playing Test cricket.

His last Test appearance came in September 2018.

The explosive all-rounder did have a history of injury issues, but he has been a regular for India now in white-ball formats.

From the time he played the last of his 11 Test matches, Pandya has featured in 33 ODIs and 52 T20Is for India.

He also bowled 55 overs across two IPLs in the 2022 and 2023 for the Gujarat Titans who he took to back-to-back finals as captain.

Which indicates that he is fit enough to bowl.

But the hard work required to be fit to play as an all-rounder in the longer format is something that doesn't seem too appealing to him any more.

Pandya is a classic example of where Indian cricket is heading.

What about Rohit and Kohli?

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the two big guns in Indian cricket, have continued to fail in big matches at the ICC events.

Whether it was the 2019 World Cup semifinal or the 2021 WTC final, they failed to deliver when it mattered.

Kohli did score a half-century in the T20 World Cup semifinal last year, but his modest strike rate was one of the reasons England romped to an emphatic win.

Both Rohit and Kohli are also on the wrong side of the 30s.

Could they have taken a conscious effort to pick and choose IPL matches ahead of what was a career-defining WTC final for both?

Unfortunately, no matter how big these players are, they are not bigger than the system.

Both are unlikely to be part of India's T20 squad again, so their last chance for redemption will be at the 50 overs World Cup on home soil.

A failure in front of their home supporters will be a big dent in their legacy.

Dravid's role under scrutiny

A failure in the 50 overs World Cup on home soil will also raise serious question marks over Rahul Dravid's coaching skills.

The legendary Indian batsman did a fantastic job in shaping India's youth teams.

It was on the back of his track record as the under-19 coach that he was brought into the senior team.

While Dravid made a smooth transition from juniors to senior level as a batsman, he is struggling to cope with that demand at the managerial level.

There was no constant media scrutiny over his role when he was coaching the junior teams.

But managing the senior Indian cricket team is like coaching the Brazilian football team, the constant demands from the public and media could be taxing.

Was that the reason that an astute reader of the game failed to see the merit in picking Ashwin at the Oval — despite Australia having four left-handers in its batting line-up?

On a pitch which had dryness underneath the grass, Ashwin getting the ball to turn away from left-handers would have been a fascinating sight.

You normally would not expect someone of Dravid's calibre to make such tactical blunders.

But he did just that.

Now a lot will depend on how this Indian team under Dravid learns from its mistakes and gives itself the best chance of succeeding in ICC events.

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Rituraj Borkakoty

Published: Mon 12 Jun 2023, 11:31 PM

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