BOMBAY, 2 June 2006 — If the members of the present squad, on the tour of the West Indies, are going to form the nucleus of the Indian team to next year’s World Cup then there are some worrying times for the think tank and the support staff, who have otherwise been doing a good enough job.
The cause of the discomfiture is the manner in which a highly laudable record of successes has so swiftly disintegrated. When the Dravid-led side won the opening tie of the five-match one-day series at Kingston, to notch a world record 18th straight triumph, chasing a target, one had thought that the West Indies, who were in the dog house the last two years, would remain there.
But what happened in the next four matches was as much a revelation to them, as it was to the Indians. Although all these matches, as was the first, had close finishes, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the visitors had incomprehensively slumped very badly.
One cannot say that it was due to complacency. For top performers, complacency does not last long. It is just that the West Indies team, led by Brian Lara, took a cocky remark of the Indian coach to their heart.
They swore among themselves to turn the tide with some inspired display. After the first win, Greg Chappell had said, in his post-match comment, that the West Indies had forgotten how to win. Even as the hosts provided a complete turnaround of form, the Indian team, especially the batting began to fail.
What compounded their problems was the adamant attitude of skipper Rahul Dravid to stick to a batting order that hardly did any justice to so much natural talent that was there at his disposal.
There was no justification is his sticking to the opener’s slot, as there was no emergency as such.
There was a specialist opener in the form of Robin Uthappa. The more aggressive and the one basking in recent successes like Mahendra Singh Dhoni was wasted far too lower down.
It was only in the last match that Uthappa was given a chance to play and Dhoni promoted to No. 3. But these moves came too late and neither of them really clicked. The biggest disappointment was Irfan Pathan, who only a couple of weeks earlier was rated as the No. 2 all-rounder in the ICC rankings. He flopped in both the batting and the bowling and in this way the team suffered.
The biggest letdown for the side, however, was their poor fielding. In the last one year or so, since Greg Chappell had taken over, every team that played against India was astounded by the high standard of fielding that the team had attained.
In the West Indies, the team’s fielding and catching was from average to shoddy. Vital errors in the field cost the team dearly. No one wants to take any credit away from the West Indies, but they were greatly helped by fielding lapses of the Indians. All those who were let off went on to get big scores.
These are mistakes and failures that can not only be overcome but also corrected. Most of the team members are young and raring to go. They can indeed forget what has happened so far in the Caribbeans as a bad dream.
But there is one breach that needs to be filled, much before the World Cup. It is the absence of an experienced player like Sachin Tendulkar. The team showed that it badly missed the presence of one who could smoothen ruffled feathers and give proper direction to so much of wild talent that is floating around.
Rahul Dravid alone had to play that role, but when he too blundered, there was no one around.
One thing is certain: the lessons of one of the worst drubbings by the Indian team will have been learned, so that the team at least plays to its full potential.
