India Tour of England: India get complacent again after taking the lead in an away series

From lording over the hosts at the historic Lord's in the second Test to crashing down in the next, the tables have turned around rather dramatically for the Indian team in just 10 days.

Some have blamed the team management for getting the selection wrong, some others have pointed fingers at the toothless bowling attack. Sunil Gavaskar, however, touched a raw nerve when he said after the Southampton loss that the old habit of getting complacent after a big win affected the Indian team.

Dig up some numbers and you'd agree that Gavaskar has a point. This was the fourth time that India have lost a Test after taking a 1-0 lead in an away series since the turn of the century. More worryingly, India went on to lose two of those three series.

In 2001 in Zimbabwe, India completely ran over the hosts in the first Test, only to lose the second and allow Zimbabwe to draw the two-match rubber. A year later in West Indies – also a five-Test series – India edged past the hosts in the second Test but were outplayed in the third. West Indies won the final Test to take the series 2-1.

The third instance came in South Africa in 2006, when India, quite unexpectedly and historically, won the first Test at Johannesburg. But the joy was short-lived as the visitors let go a huge opportunity to win a series in South Africa by losing the next two Tests.

More recently, when India hosted England in 2012, Dhoni and his men made a mockery of the Englishmen by winning the first Test in Ahmedabad by nine wickets. The trend returned to haunt India, and the tourists won the next two Tests and drew the last to win a historic series.

So what could be the reasons behind such drastic changes in the performances of the Indian team in the space of just one Test? Is it complacency, as Gavaskar pointed out, or more than just that?

"I don't know if it was overconfidence, but the focus just wasn't there in the third Test," former India opener and coach Anshuman Gaekwad said. "Nothing much really settled down for India in the third Test. No one looked confident. No one was ready to struggle, which they were at Lord's. The application from the players was missing."

The in-form Ajinkya Rahane's dismissal at the Ageas Bowl in the first innings, miscuing a big shot against spinner Moeen Ali, is a prime example of that. The Mumbaikar was – like Gaekwad said – ready to struggle in the second Test, thereby scoring a brilliant hundred. Not so much in Southampton.

Mind you, just before the start of the England tour, India coach Duncan Fletcher had admitted that the players were overconfident on the previous two foreign tours – South Africa and New Zealand – and hoped that it wouldn't happen again in England.

"With these young boys, I felt they could have been a little overconfident when they went to South Africa and New Zealand because they had done so well in India," Fletcher had told bcci.tv.

Renowned sports psychologist Bhishmraj Bam, who has worked with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, felt that the players might have started thinking that they were better than the opposition after the win at Lord's.

"With the celebrations that come after a win like that, you tend to slack off," Bam said. "You start thinking that you're better than the opposition. I would say it was an amateurish approach by the Indian players in the third Test. Once we win, our players think that they're the best. That's our style. We don't have the mindset to stay on top."

Bam added that too much cricket, coupled with back-to-back Tests, also tends to affect the commitment levels of the players. It must be noted here that Dhoni had said before departing to England that the team wasn't used to playing five-Test series.

So what can be done to ensure India don't go on to lose the series like in the previous two instances? The fourth Test is just a couple of days away, and Gaekwad reckons getting the focus back should be of paramount importance for Dhoni & Co.

"You have to keep them focussed throughout the series. This same set of boys have done it before, have won you Test matches before. It's just a question of having that same application again," he said.

Bam felt it isn't just the job of the coach or captain, but the entire team should understand that they need to step up again.

Come Thursday, and we'll know if India continues with the trend of losing a series after being 1-0 up, or takes a step closer to re-writing history.

BACK TO SQUARE ONE
The defeat in Southampton was the fourth time that India have lost an away Test after taking a 1-0 series lead since 2000. Here's a look back at the previous three instances, and the eventual outcome of the series...

In Zimbabwe, 2001
Having comfortably won the first Test by eight wickets at Bulawayo, Sourav Ganguly and his troops couldn't put up the same show with the bat in the next to lose by four wickets. The hosts, thus, drew the two-match series 1-1.

In West Indies, 2002
The first half of this series has a striking resemblance to the current one. After a drawn first Test, India won the second by 37 runs. West Indies bounced back to win the third by 10 wickets. A drawn fourth Test followed, and the hosts took the series after winning the fifth by 155 runs.

In South Africa, 2006
After being blown away in the one-dayers, not many expected India to deliver in the three-match Test series. But Rahul Dravid & Co. won a historic first Test at Johannesburg by 123 runs. But the hosts bounced back, winning the next two to deny India a long-awaited series win in South Africa.