Like Hindustan Motors, the makers of Ambassador Car, who were totally ignorant of a concept called Product Life Cycle, which finally led it to a comatose situation, the Indian Test Cricket Team has been on borrowed time for a while.
The middle order was ageing, and ageing quickly. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman are into their late 30's. They have done stellar service to Indian Cricket. But they are at the fag end of their career and needs to be phased out over a period of one year.
Harbhajan's decline was visible to everyone other than his friend Sachin and Indian Selectors. Any decent cricket fan knew that he cannot take wickets, given even a square turner. At least he used to keep the runs down with his negative fast, flat leg stump line. Even that is no longer true. Bhajji is typical of the current Indian Team and Board. He has refused to accept there is a problem, even when it was staring on his face (I still remember a homily of my HPCL GM - "Son, we know you Sales officers will have problems in your Areas. We are not interested in that. What we look for in a Review meeting is whether you are AWARE that there are problems, doing something about it. It is the attitude and thinking that is critical for us). Bhajji has lost his flight, spin and doosra, and with it his effectiveness. He needs to be send back to the Domestic Cricket for a year of grind. When even Ranji players start thrashing him, he will understand how far he has come down.
We really need to look into why our medium pace bowling, where we were supposed to have riches a few years back, is bare. Why do we have highly paid coaches if the batsmen cant last 75 overs as a team, bowlers get thrashed for 700 runs in a helpful track and fielders drop catches by buckets. Heads must roll.
M S Dhoni has never lost a series before. But his Test Captaincy is average. He is just not pro active enough. Also his Wicket Keeping has been abysmal.
The long and short is that our players are just not working enough on their game, with the exception of Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman. They are holding on to their places by virtue of their reputation. This is a sure road to disaster.
The fans have reduced the rating of Indian Team from AA to BB- after this England tour.
But will things change. I doubt. 15 years back, we saw the emergence of two wonderful players in an England Tour - a certain Sourav Ganguly and one Rahul Dravid. When was the last time an exciting talent hit the Test Scene in India after that? I can't remember. Therein lies the root cause.
We dont mind if a better team beats us. But what is galling is the way we lost without even putting up a decent fight. And to add insult to injury, we have a captain who said 'it doesnt matter if we lost the No.1 spot". Well it was clear it didnt matter to him or his team, but 'IT DOES MATTER TO US FANS AND THE NATION".
For making that one statement alone, which shows his mindset, MSD should be sacked.
