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The bane of Indian Cricket
Monday, February 9 2004The feature of Indian cricket in the 90s was the sharp contrast between results in home and abroad. While the team was nearly invincible in home (losing only one test series in the 90s in home to South Africa), they were bunnies abroad, losing to Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe and even conceding 400 runs to Bangladesh in Bangladesh's first ever test not long ago.
Indian cricket has moved since then, winning a Natwest Final in 2002, having creditable performances in the test series in England and West Indies and recently coming close to victory in Australia. The period has also seen the failures by the team which have often been put off as 'a bad day in the office' by many an Indian supporter. There was the dismal bowling performance in the World Cup final in 2003 conceding 359 runs. India also conceded more than 300 runs in the memorable Natwest Final and the batting partnership of Kaif and Yuvraj Singh was nothing less than a miracle which saved the day for the Indians. India has been losing a lot of finals recently like the VB Series final (where the Aussies again walloped 359 against the bowling) and the loss to Australia again in Eden Gardens recently. This is not a recent or Australia specific phenomena however. Right from the ICC Knock-Out Trophy 2000 where Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh first emerged for India and India lost in the finals to New Zealand, this syndrome of 'losing the finals' is being seen. So is it a mental block India has in the finals?
I don't think so. The problem is that the team is not consistent enough to compete with the best teams when it counts most. The team has had brilliant performances like the batting of Dravid and Laxman. But is has also had days like vs Zimbabwe in Perth where the batting collapsed. If the loss to Australia in Perth could be termed as a one off, the performance vs Zimbabwe in the very next match proved the problem is more than a case of one bad performance amidst many good ones.
There is a an opinion in the cricketing world that the problem of Indian Cricket is its bowling. They don't have a fiery Srinath or a destructive spinner abroad like the spin quartet. I would like to refute that. Apart from the fact that the batting collapses almost as much as the bowlers bowl dismally, India has never had a great bowling attack. Furthermore, I don't think the attacks in most nations of the world is great by any standards. A line up of Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and the likes of Irfan Pathan emerging mean the bowling certainly isn't bad. What is lacking is discipline and consistency. Even if the Indian bowling attack was apparently weakened in the final, they weren't so bad that they could concede 359 if the bowled with some discipline. The Australian bowling attack was not great in the TVS Cup held recently in India. Yet they won the tournament because they had the discipline. Its discipline which garners consistency in a team and its consistency which separates champion sides from the average team. Till India does not learn to discipline itself, it will remain a team which produces flickers of brilliance but remains average on the whole.
Posted by Pratyush