If the team has not won a series outside the sub-continent since 1986, it is because of the absence of wicket-taking bowlers.
ST. LUCIA: Captain Rahul Dravid means every word when he says the team is improving. Only, it’s time we started winning. Coach Greg Chappell rightly believes it takes time to pick up the nuances of Test cricket. But the boys would never do it if injuries and experimentation occur all the time.
The question must cross the mind of Indian cricketers as they arrived on Thursday in yet another island, to play yet another Test match and most likely, produce yet another barren result.
There has to be a reason why India hasn’t won a Test series outside the sub-continent since 1986. India still turn to Anil Kumble for wins after a decade and a half. It must be a worry that the team couldn’t beat a B grade England team at home or Pakistan escaped its noose in 2005. Karachi, Mumbai, Bangalore - the list is long. Antigua became the latest in this list on Tuesday. West Indies, somehow with two and a half wickets, survived the ordeal of final 20 overs. One would never know if only Dravid had persisted with Virender Sehwag and Dave Mohammed, with his propensity to hit expansive drives, would have fallen for the bait. Somehow, in the flush of that nerve-racking finish, the influence of Dave Mohammed hasn’t been fully understood.
One would never know if Irfan Pathan could have done any worse than what Sreesanth did on the second day. Or if Pathan and Harbhajan, with their experience, would have cut all escape routes for the hosts in the final hour. There is a worrying tendency to discard experience and get seduced by the youth. Harbhajan, Pathan and Ajit Agarkar or Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and VRV Singh?
The Indian team seems to be making up its mind on the issue. But there is no guarantee that the shoe wouldn’t be in the other foot in a few months’ time. Again, the search would start for a new Sreesanth, Patel, VRV Singh and Rudra Pratap Singh.
In the roller-coaster ride of international cricket, nothing sticks in mind for long. But the value of experience is best understood if one remembers that India haven’t won a Test in the last five years without a contribution from Sehwag, Dravid or Kumble. Or, West Indies hasn’t done any good without Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan or Chris Gayle coming to party.
The attention on the Test team wouldn’t stay for long since India only play South Africa for three Test matches in the next 10 months. The two matches against Bangladesh, if they take place, count for nothing. The rest are only one-day matches.
India continue to revel in the excitement of newness while turning their back on durability. To win outside home, you need hustling pace not delicate flick of wrists by our left-arm pacers. Therein hangs the tale.
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