Thursday, December 29, 2011

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses....



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There is only one way India knows how to win Test matches. That is to put runs on the board. With that their bowlers until recently, have used it as a pressure element along with their own skill and conditions to claim 20 wickets. 

This year, the runs have dried up. Consequently the losses have piled up. 5 in a row now; against competent opposition.

England was a wake up call. Except no one really woke up.

Analysts, bloggers, players, administrators and commentators have highlighted a myriad of excuses. IPL and World Cup fatigue, tail-end collapses, Dhoni's defensive captaincy, the non-performance of openers, inbility to finish the tail...

...everything but the obvious.


Lords, Trent Bridge, Birmingham, Oval and now the MCG has only one thing in common.

The failure of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to put runs on the board in tandem. Glance at all of India's famous wins away from home and the thing that is common is the runs scored by the 3; and by Ganguly before his retirement; in tandem.

The key is 'in tandem'... Partnerships. 

Short of blaming something as absurd as Umesh Yadav's pink underwear he parades in, in the dressing room, India have manufactured all sorts of excuses for their decline. Of course, there is no way for us to know if Umesh wears pink underwear or that he parades in his undies in the dressing room. The statement is simply to hit home the point that India's excuses for 5 consecutive Test defeats away from home have largely been manufactured, irrelevant and ignorant of the obvious.

Abjectivity. Time to invent a new word for the new low in India's Test fortunes. If India can manufacture excuses, we can invent words to describe India's pathetic surrenders. 

Let us turn the argument around and ask..what can be the excuse for allowing the 3 elephants in the room, to further their careers.  

The excuse is to win in Australia. 

Find some way to win at least 2 and draw one Test match. Anything short should call for the heads of the 3 great men. Except that it will not happen. Their individual career numbers will be paraded in any argument and used to obscure the real analysis.

Mind you, the argument isn't that India will win without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Rather the argument is that if India has to rebuild, lets rebuild with the team of the future. Allowing the 3 to find their winning ways again; which I doubt they will; will only rob the next generation led by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma of valuable experience to find their feet at the highest level. The only way the loss at MCG would have had a silver lining is if it had been achieved with Sachin and co. out of the team.

There is no disrespect for the 3. These 3 are perhaps the best combination of middle order batsmen ever in the game. A game with more than a century's worth of history. 

But they no longer have the right to make their own career choices. There is only one way they can earn back that right...

That is to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy outright. 

15 comments:

WellOfLife said...

Hmmm... Agree with u. Earlier bating was the indias strenth now they r dependent on bowling, i thnk they r more concerend abt bowling n they think their batting is alright n well experienced:(

Vaibhav Sharma said...

the younger lot of kohli, gambhir and dhoni too have failed in all these defeats. And sachin was the only batsman who batted without trouble on this mcg pitch. i dont know why age becomes the issue for selection. Should n't it be only about runs scored? Even ponting and hussey were being doubted before this test match but they were the ones who help australia earn this victory.

Golandaaz said...

Sahil...

Thanks for the comment...

Vaibhav,
we would look rather stupid calling for Kohli and Co to retire :-)

Arul said...

Kohli performs only if there is no pressure on him and on Asian conditions. He Gambhir and Dhoni should be blamed for India's loss against Aussies.

Golandaaz said...

Arul, the post isn't about assigning blame. Its about calling for the retirement of the big 3.

I agree the people you point out need to be blamed. But like it or not they are the future.

Not SRT, VVS and RD

Vaibhav Sharma said...

thats what i m saying. Obviously Kohli and dhoni cannot be called to retire. But why then a run scoring batsman is asked to hang his boots?

Golandaaz said...

because that will give more time for the younger players to find their feet. Am I so unclear in my post?

Vaibhav Sharma said...

so what you mean is that as soon as a player turns 36 he should be thrown out and all young players must be drafted in so that they get time to find their feet. Is n't that unfair to an in form batsman who would be a better asset. besides tendulkar does n't play much one dayers to vacate the place for youngsters so that they get international cricket experience.

Golandaaz said...

what is special about 36?

Vidooshak said...

Vaibhav -

I don't think the point was about 36. The point was about 36 and not being able to pile up enough runs. In other words, not being able to follow the game plan.

So it's probably time for a new group to come together and have a new MO to win.

Vaibhav Sharma said...

even gambhir and dhoni are not piling up the runs. So why don't you vouch for them to be dropped?

Golandaaz said...

Vaibhav, we are again going in circles. You either are not reading or just trying to needle this conversation.

You are asking me to write about selection issues because you don't agree with my calling for retirement of the 3 seniors.

Not sure what point you are driving at?

These are 2 separate issues. By calling for SRT and co. to retire, I am in no way ignoring the lack of runs from Dhoni and Gambhir.

However, SRT, VVS and RD are used to winning test matches with people like Aakash Chopra/Sanjay Bangar opening and Ajay Ratra as wicketkeeper. The reason India has lost 5 straight is not because of Gambhir and Dhoni but because of the middle order. Please debate on this point and do not add some tangential components to this debate

Vaibhav Sharma said...

I was trying to stress on the fact that not only the 3 senior pros are to be blamed. Even dhoni and gambhir should also share the blame. Thats it!

Golandaaz said...

Vaibhav,

yes we will blame them in an appropriate post. This one was focusing on India's middle order

Vaibhav Sharma said...

well ok! lets close this debate right here and wait for what happens in the 3 forthcoming tests!