The defeat ultimately came down to a batting line-up that couldn’t pullits weight
Dileep Premachandran in Colombo11-Aug-2008
Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were among the few bright spots for India in the series © AFP
India are regularly talked up as the team most likely to knock Australia off their perch but, on a day South Africa formally completed their seventh Test series win in eight, India’s claim became that much more tenuous as they hurtled to their fifth defeat in their last 10 Tests against the strongest sides in the world [Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka]. The factors for losing this match, and the series, cover almost every aspect of India’s cricket.”By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” said Benjamin Franklina couple of centuries ago, sage advice that the Indian cricket boardblithely ignores time after time. Prior to the Boxing Day Test last year,India had just one warm-up game and barely a week of acclimatisation. Itwas little surprise, then, when Australia romped home by nine wickets at theMCG.On arriving in Sri Lanka last month, the Indians again played just onepractice match, and left the SSC after an innings-and-239-run thrashing.Why do they never learn? Why is the itinerary always adjusted to shoehornin meaningless one-day series? The lack ofpreparation becomes especially acute when the stalwarts of your battingorder are no longer part of the one-day side. As long as the priority isquantity [and revenue], the team will continue to have all the substanceof a plank of plywood.The batsmen started in wretched fashion at the SSC, and with the exceptionof Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, there were few silver linings asthe series progressed. India’s batsmen made one hundred [Sehwag’smonumental 201 in Galle] and seven half-centuries [four from the openers]in the series, and didn’t cross 330 even once. Sri Lanka had fourcenturies at the SSC alone, and they comfortably outbatted India in theseries decider.Australia conceded first-innings leads in every Test back in 2004, butstill prevailed because their batsmen stockpiled seven centuries and four 50s. Without someone to dig deep andbat like Darren Lehmann and Damien Martyn did on that tour, Indiasimply didn’t have a chance. First-day scores of 249 don’t win you Testmatches on placid pitches, as Anil Kumble was to admit later.The bowlers were just as culpable though. Barring Harbhajan Singh, whotook 16 wickets, no Indian bowler averaged less than 30. Harbhajan andKumble took 24 wickets between them, two less than the remarkable AjanthaMendis, whose off breaks, peculiar googlies and carrom balls dismissed VVSLaxman on five occasions, and Rahul Dravid four times. After his exertionsagainst Pakistan and Australia, Kumble appears to be running on empty, andthe series against Australia could well be a watershed as far as Indianspin is concerned.The pace bowlers had their moments, but couldn’t summon up the consistencyor the venom to break open the series. While it’s true that slow bowlerstend to be the game-breakers in Sri Lanka, two of the sides to win herethis millennium have shown the value of pace and seam movement. WhenEngland triumphed in 2000-01, Darren Gough took 14 wickets at 19.57 andAndy Caddick nine at 25. Three seasons later, Australia were indebted toShane Warne’s 26 wickets, but just as crucial was the contribution fromMichael Kasprowicz [12 wickets at 25.16] and Jason Gillespie [10 at 31.6].Enough has been said about the fielding shambles. Having given his all during one-day tournaments of paramount importance in Bangladesh and Pakistan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni decided to give this trivial Test series a miss. His replacements were shocking, both with gloves and bat. Prasanna Jayawardene, the most under-rated wicketkeeper in the world, was immaculate with the gloves and alsocontributed 107 runs with the bat, including a priceless 49 at the P Sara.Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel aggregated 50 over six innings, and seemed tofluff more chances than they took.Muttiah Muralitharan finished with 21 wickets at 22.23, par for the coursein a home series, and India tackled him as well as could have beenexpected. What will really rankle, though, was the abject surrender – Sehwagand Gambhir apart – against Mendis, the only other bowler of substance ina wafer-thin attack. Chaminda Vaas wasn’t the force of old, while DammikaPrasad will bowl a lot better and go wicketless.Mendis and Murali wheeled away for an astonishing 324 overs and, asidefrom the openers, no one managed to collar them even once. When itmattered, they would either come up with an unplayable delivery or one ofthe fielders would pull off a stunning catch. The half-chances thatinvariably slipped through Indian fingers inevitably stuck in Sri Lankanpalms.Ultimately though, it came down to a batting line-up that couldn’t pullits weight. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly finished with fewer runsthan Prasanna, and when two of your biggest wheels fall off in suchfashion, even the mightiest juggernaut will only end up in a waysideditch. Beaten, broken, and ambushed by a man who likes to flick the ballwith his middle finger.