To reaffirm their No 1 status in Tests, India should plan and play to obliterate the next Test team they face, wherever they go. A clean sweep. All comprehensive wins. Win by an innings, 200 runs or nine wickets. After this dreadful tour, that's the only way to come back. No more fightbacks from difficult situations- they stay on top all the time. And they should plan accordingly, and pick a squad to that end.
That won't happen with this current squad. All the players need to be drafted in with adequate domestic experience, and there should be enough balance in the team. We'd like to see selections like Bresnan, Broad, Swann and Tremlett in the side- multirole players, mostly bowlers. Keep the top Test players out of the meaningless ODI/T20I series India usually play, in batches. Study the opposition closely and plan accordingly- something that's worked countless times against India's best players, but never noticed in this Indian side, despite having foreign coaches for nearly a decade. Indian players are researched well, but the Indian team is very poor in research.
If India can capitalise on their strength (batting, with a very strong top five) and beef up their weakness (bowling, with that extra utility bowler), and planning (managing player workload and analysing opposition characteristics), they're capable of wiping out the next team, at least at home. Hang on, it's England! That makes it tough, but not impossible. We'd like to see the kind of pitches laid out for their 1993 predecessors (or even 2008-2010, for the Aussies), with a lot of spin assistance- and two spinners who try to take wickets. After being under the thumb of the English, Fletcher and Dhoni should know enough about the team to strike back at home.
And please, keep Yuvraj and Raina out of Tests!
