Cricket blues: Why Australia keeps putting India to shame
Another match, another loss to Australia.
Let's face it, India will lose more matches than it wins against the Aussies. Hasn't that always been the case? Therefore, let's understand our limitations and not stake claim to being the number one team in the world.
That honour would go to the Aussies any day. What we can instead do is to fight really hard for "silver" in cricket competitions, and leave it to the gold jerseys to take the "gold".
On Friday, the MS Dhoni-led Team India pretty much handed the match on a platter to the Aussies. Seriously, you don't expect to win a match when you floor so many catches, that too against a top class team.
Yes, the Indians, whose fielding had improved in leaps and bounds over the past decade or so with the introduction of the likes of Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, would want to forget their effort on the field today in a hurry.
There were at least four distinct chances that should have been taken at this level, some of them being absolute dollies.
The result: the Indians are already 0-2 down in the five-match ODI series, and the spectre of a whitewash is now as real as it possibly can be.
If Dhoni and his boys can turn around from such a hopeless position and actually win the series by beating the rampaging Australians in the next three matches, it will be nothing short of a miracle.
But why has the Indians always come a cropper whenever they are faced with the Australians? Is it something in the mind? Is it a fear, an inferiority complex that they can't overcome?
The Indians have still put up a semblance of fight at home, but when it comes to facing Australia (or even other teams) in Australia, they end up having cold feet. India's performances Down Under in the last two decades give that impression.
We were beaten black and blue in the Test series Down Under in 1991-'92 and the ODI tri-series wasn't much better. The 1992 World Cup was a disaster for India, while our arch-rivals and fellow subcontinental team Pakistan went on to win the coveted crown. Then came another tour in 1999-2000. Less said about India's performance in that series the better.
Sourav Ganguly's team put up a stellar show in the Test series in 2003-'04, drawing it 1-1. It showed some spark in the ODI series also, winning a match against Australia in their own back yard for the first time since 1991. But soon it was the same old story again, and though India reached the final of that tournament, it suffered massive defeats.
The 2007-'08 tour was probably an outlier, with India winning the tri-series, including two consecutive matches in the best of three final against Australia, with Sachin Tendulkar and Dhoni himself playing lead roles.
The tours in 2011-'12 and 2014-'15 went along the same path, and the Indians were thoroughly beaten. The World Cup in Australia/New Zealand last year provided some cheer with India notching up seven wins on the trot, but when you consider that four of them were against lesser teams - UAE, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Bangladesh - the sheen goes out of India's achievement a bit.
More so when you consider also how Dhoni's team capitulated when faced with Australia in the semi-final. Now, the 2016 tour has again started on the wrong foot.
Is this the same team that was the toast of the nation when it trounced South Africa in Tests late last year? The truth is, that victory was achieved on pitches tailor made for the Indian spinners and the team romped home easily.
But those pitches were hardly sporting and for those too eager to brand Team India as the best in the world, the first two ODIs in Australia have shown exactly where the Indian team stands, more so where its bowling attack stands. You won't always get square turners, and your spinners would not always win you matches. The faster the Indian team management realises this the better.
The performance of the Indian pacers has been shoddy. Umesh Yadav has a lot of potential, but often fails to deliver on the big stage. It was the same story in the World Cup semi-final last year, when he sprayed the ball all over and bowled a bit too short. India badly needs somebody like Zaheer Khan who had exemplary control over his deliveries.
The Indian batting, unlike earlier times, has put up a good show scoring over 300 runs in both matches of the current series, but with the bowlers goofing it up, how much bigger a target will the batsmen have to set now, to be safe?
The bowlers put down as many as 11 wides on Friday. You simply can't do it in a match of such stature. Dhoni felt the team needed at least 330 runs to be safe. Considering the profligacy of India's bowlers, no target is safe, one fears.
Also, Dhoni's captaincy would now be under even greater pressure. It is quite some time since the Indians won an ODI series now, and if India loses this series also, the chances of which are quite strong, calls to replace Dhoni with Virat Kohli as the captain in limited overs cricket are bound to get shriller.
Team India, and especially Dhoni, need to pull up their socks. But would they?