The whole of India is sad after experiencing the drubbing we had during the world cup semifinals versus England. We are experiencing the same fate in Cricket as English Soccer hosting the biggest soccer league but winning no world cup. But I am not that dissappointed. We performed beyond the expectations I had during this world cup. We reached semis defeating Pakistan and Bangladesh and downing minnows. I was not even sure of that thanks to the great preparation we had running up to the world cup. It all started with the regime change in coaching as well as the captainship year back
Before I delve into regime change and its serious impact, I would admit that the previous regimes under the captainship of Dhoni and Kohli under Ravi Shastri also had stumbling blocks at the knockout stages before the pandemic. But the way we dominated the group stage did make those losses subject matter of mental conditioning than the team ability. Under the current regime, some vague decision-making has really impacted the way we play cricket. The previous regime had a tremendous focus on fitness. Doing away with the Yo-Yo test resulted in the selection of unfit players including the leader. We have tremendous bench strength thanks to IPL as shown in the epic test series win in Australia. Some stubborn beliefs in non-performers like K L Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, and a few more really impacted hard. T20 requires a completely different mindset with a focus on all-around skills with lengthy batting and effective bowling options. We fell short drastically. When Bumrah got injured I had no hopes based on this team selected.
We had that confusion prior to 19 WC in England for 50 overs at the no 4 batting position. But that was the only slot that was under the cloud. This team had the opposite situation. Only two slots were justified: Hardik and Surya. Rest all were under the cloud of uncertainty. A great talent like Virat has to have a rebound. His fitness focus and work ethics are stupendous. His return to form was a big bonus thanks to which we could reach semis. But in semis even he was out of place especially with Surya getting out. Hardik was a saving grace which even then was found to be inadequate thanks to the bowling effort. I don’t want to be a naysayer but unless things change drastically we might have similar issues for WC 23 in India. But then Indian conditions are my only hope.
Now let’s revisit the IPL issue. As I said it has given us bench strength but it’s really first-class cricket that needs to be given priority in the international selection. Of course, we have to live with IPL or T20 franchise economy: a mini version played twice a year: one in India other in a foreign country can really give our player exposure to foreign conditions. Our players were sort of out of place in Australian playing conditions of longer grounds and the bounce. Of course, workload management is the key as we found Bumrah missing very important tournaments.
Coach and Captain form the essence of leadership and team management. The captain needs to deserve his position in the team both by performance and fitness. Coach has a determinant role of boosting confidence within the team to enhance performance. The coach needs flexibility rather than fixed ideas, especially in shorter formats. But under the current regime, we lost a series SAF and test versus England. Just as our test team with its focus on fitness, resilience, and fighting spirit had shown wonders in Australia and England. The Series in Australia in 20-21 especially the Gabba test was epic. Win in Gabba test can be compared only second to 83 World Cup Win. But then the back door politics of BCCI resulted in regime change. And as I had predicted in this column last year our performance plummeted and there are more questions about the future than answers.
In the last decade, we were the top team across various formats. Our test team did wonders outside India in the latter half of the last decade. Nightmare overseas test tours of 11-12 under the leadership of MS Dhoni were forgotten by the resilience shown by Kohli-Rahane-Shashtri management. We won meaningless bilateral series in the limited over format. We topped the league stage in most of the ICC tournaments but we lost crucial matches and silverware eluded us since that day in April 2011. The era between 2007 after the exiting of Dravid as captain till the 2013 champion’s trophy under the leadership of Dhoni was a golden era. IPL flourished but lost its way after spot-fixing scandals and the pandemic. Indian cricket fortunes for the last year are in the doldrums across the format. It’s time to rebuild but I don’t see that happening under the current regime. We have some genuinely talented players in our country. We need to revive Ranji and other first-class cricket allowing top players to perform yet balancing out with commercials of franchise cricket. Incoming BCCI management under Roger Binny has its task cut out. Will it take a bold decision what BCCI did in 2007 when a young leader was appointed under the new coaching staff? Hardik seems to be the answer in limited overs while in longer formats Sehwagsque ways of Pant can be worth a try. We need to look beyond our borders for new coaching ideas. A complete overhaul is the order of the day.
In India, everyone apart from those at the helm have ideas to manage the cricketing affairs of the Indian Cricket team. This is just one more piece of advice given by a fan. After all, as famous Marathi author P L Deshpande has said Cricket is not a sport to play but a sport to talk about by millions of fans. Though it's World Cup for Cricket, It’s a Word Cup for each fan.
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