Indian Cricket Team – A Major Downfall in Performance

Mar 8 • General • 1951 Views • 3 Comments on Indian Cricket Team – A Major Downfall in Performance

India’s Cricket Crisis: A Team in Free Fall

The Indian Cricket Team – A Major Downfall in Performance: Once compulsory viewing, the Indian Cricket Team is increasingly driving its fans back home to hit the off button, as defeat follows defeat on its overseas tours. A year ago, the Indian Cricket Team was on top of the world rankings for five-day tests; it has now lost seven consecutive on the road. The Indian Cricket Team was swept, 4-0, by England in the middle of 2011. Now, Australia has a chance to sweep the Indian Cricket Team, too, having won the first three tests in their series, with the fourth beginning Tuesday in Adelaide.

“I cannot remember any Indian team going through such a dreadful run overseas in for such a long time,” wrote Saurav Ganguly, a former India captain, in The Sydney Morning Herald.

India is historically a poor team on the road, but expectations are higher now that the team has spent time as No. 1 and was also the sole opponent to consistently trouble Australia during its period of domination between the mid-1990s and late 2000s.

None of India’s seven matches have been close. Four, including the last two against Australia, have been by a margin of an innings — with the winners scoring more runs in a single inning than India amassed in two.

The End of an Era? India’s Experienced Players Face Criticism

India’s passion for cricket is unrivaled, so this miserable run has inspired fevered debate back home, but it is worth noting that India’s opponents did their part, too, in the lopsided results.

England played with a remorseless, ruthless efficiency that raised it to No.1 in the rankings, while Australia — which has a clutch of new bowlers — shows serious signs of a revival under the leadership of Michael Clarke.

Gambhir said, “The kind of batting we have done has let the entire nation down.” He also responded to critics who called for Laxman’s removal by stating, “We should criticize the top seven, not just single out individuals.  We have all failed as a unit.”

Even Dravid, brilliant in England, where he played three innings of 100 or more in four matches, has looked vulnerable in Australia, consistently getting bowled for low scores. Since he turned 39 earlier this month, critics have been asking whether he has crossed the line where “experienced” becomes “old.”

The Price of Success: India’s Cricketing Conundrum

Wasim Akram, the former Pakistan captain, wrote that at least three senior Indian batsmen were too tired to move their feet and tackle a moving ball after fielding for almost two days, after India lost by an innings at Perth. Akram added that Dravid, Tendulkar, and Laxman, though legends, cannot win matches on past achievements alone.

Some critics argue that overconcentration on the shorter forms of the game — like the one-day format used in the World Cup, which India won, and the quickfire Twenty20 popularized in the last few years by the Indian Premier League — has undermined player technique in the longer five-day tests. But David Warner of Australia has developed from a Twenty20 specialist into a serious test batsman. If he can, why not India’s young stars?

India’s Post-World Cup Slump: A Leadership Crisis?

Captains of losing teams invariably come under scrutiny. The former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has argued that M.S. Dhoni — a national icon after leading India to victory in the World Cup last year — no longer merits his place on the team as either a player or the captain. Akram said that “players are looking like individuals and not gelling as a unit.”

Even with that rest, India might have struggled. The World Cup triumph was the culmination of years of effort, but what happens to achievers once they have achieved?

Starting again, as any number of teams who have won memorable victories can confirm, is tough. It was no fluke that Dravid, who did not play in the World Cup, was the exception to a dismal rule in England.

Failure rarely has a single cause. Most of the above has contributed. Ganguly contends that “tough decisions and honest ones” are necessary to pull cricket’s largest and richest nation out of its tailspin in the most prestigious form of the game, and this contention is beyond doubt. This is all about the indian cricket team’s major downfall performance.

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