Why is India failing to cross 300 in overseas tests?

2011 saw a historic World Cup victory for the Indian cricket team. Indian cricket fans came out on the streets to celebrate their team’s victory as their own! Accolades poured in for the team, and deservedly so.

Since then, things have turned sour. In May, India embarked on a tour of West Indies, which seemed to be stuffed in between the IPL and the marquee tour of England. Many senior players chose to skip this tour to nurse their tired bodies and/or to prepare for the England tour. But the England series that followed was nothing short of a nightmare. India failed to win a single international match on the tour, and suffered an embarrassing 0-4 defeat in the test matches.

After some heartening home-wins against England and West Indies, India have now embarked on their 2^nd big tour of the year... to Australia. With the Australian team facing issues of its own, and calls to axe their veterans, this was seen as India’s best chance to win a test series in Australia. Sadly, after another defeat in the 1^st test at MCG, cricket fans fear that this tour might turn out to be another nightmare.

What has caused this sudden fall from grace? Over the last decade, India had improved their overseas record significantly, with test wins coming at Headingley (Leeds), Adelaide, Wanderers (Johannesburg), Kingston (Jamaica), Trent Bridge (Nottingham), Kingsmead (Durban) and above all at the WACA in Perth.

Then what has gone wrong? The Indian batting line-up boasts of over 40,000 test runs, more than any other test team ever. However, in the last 5 overseas tests, this amazing line-up has failed to cross 300 in an innings. In fact, they did so only once (in 3 tests) in the West Indies. We all realise that test matches are won by bowlers. But, if the batsmen fail to put up a decent score, even the best of bowling attacks will have problems defending it.

Here are some of my observations and thoughts on why the Indian team has not crossed the 300-run mark in 5 consecutive away test matches.  Of course, a lot of credit goes to the English and Australian bowlers, and they have been very good. But, Indian batsmen have faced top class fast bowling int he past, and have come up trumps! So, what’s going wrong of late?

An Unsettled Opening Pair

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have been one of the most successful opening pairs in recent cricket. Unfortunately, both suffered injuries during the IPL and skipped the West Indies tour. Both were undercooked for the England series and failed miserably against some hostile and accurate seam bowling.

In fact, Sehwag embarrassed himself by grabbing a King Pair at Edgbaston, his comeback test. He looked uninterested in the home series against West Indies, until he scored a magical 219 in the ODI at Indore. However, his run of low scores has not inspired any confidence in Indian fans.

A couple of years ago, Gambhir was on top of the ICC Test Ratings for batsmen. Sadly, he hasn’t put up a century in 2011, and has shown serious vulnerability outside the off stump. His form has fallen over the last year to such an extent that some critics are even calling for his head.

The opening stand is very critical to India’s batting fortunes. It will be difficult for India to put up a big score without Gambhir’s solidity and a swashbuckling knock from Sehwag to put pressure back on the Aussie bowlers. They have the skills and experience. This is the right time to show what they are capable of.

2^nd New Ball worries

It’s not only the 1^st new ball that has created problems for Indian batsmen. The 2^nd new ball has had devastating effects on India’s middle and lower-middle order. Notably, India have not survived 100 overs in a single innings in the last 5 overseas tests.

In my opinion, the failure of India’s no.6 and 7 batsmen has been primarily responsible for this. On quite a few occasions, India found themselves to be 4-5 wickets down at the end of 80 overs. However, the 2^nd new ball has then triggered or accelerated a batting collapse to leave India short of the 300 mark.

After Saurav Ganguly’s retirement, India has struggled to fill the no.6 position. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina have failed. Cheteshwar Pujara is injured. It is now Virat Kohli’s turn to show if he is capable of succeeding at test cricket. This, coupled with the (overseas) batting failures of MS Dhoni has exacerbated matters further. Captain Dhoni’s wicket has often triggered a lower-order batting collapse. The table below throws up an interesting trend.

Venue	Inn.	2nd New Ball wk	MS Dhoni wk	MS Dhoni score	Team Score	2nd New Ball Collapse
Lord's	1	240-6 (83.4)	240-6 (83.4)	28 (103)	286 (95.5)	46-5
Lord's	2	225-6 (85.2)	225-6 (85.2)	16 (49)	261 (96.3)	36-5
Trent Bridge	1	267-5 (85.4)	273-6 (87.3)	5 (9)	288 (91.1)	21-6
Oval	2	269-7 (83.2)	269-7 (83.2)	3 (19)	283 (91)	14-4
MCG	1	245-7 (81.4)	245-7 (81.4)	6 (8)	282 (94.1)	37-4

As the table above suggests, India have often been in a decent (but by no means strong) position after 80 overs. From here, nos.6 and 7 should take the responsibility to take the score from 250 to 400+. Sadly, our nos.6 and 7 have not been good enough to survive the 2^nd new ball and the results are there to see. In fact, MS Dhoni can be classified as a “New Ball Bunny”.

What’s the solution? Surely MS Dhoni is a better batsman than his recent scores suggest. His frailties against the new ball need not surprise us. He is a natural stroke-player and if his batting is allowed to flourish, can change the course of a match.

I would suggest a move for Dhoni to promote himself to no.5, at the expense of VVS Laxman dropping to no.6. This move may look drastic, but this is the time for our captain to lead the way himself, much like he did in the World Cup finals, when he promoted himself ahead of Yuvraj Singh who was in peak form.

Batting at no.5 will mean Dhoni will get the opportunity to build an innings against a relatively older ball. He can then take charge as the ball (and bowlers) get worn out, and make a difference of 30-40 runs before the 2^nd new ball is taken. If he survives beyond 80 overs, he will be in a much better position to encounter the new ball with 50-60 runs under his belt. Else, the new ball can be faced by VVS Laxman and  Kohli (or even Ajinkya Rahane who is an opening batsman and can face the new ball with much more confidence).

Either way, Dhoni’s skills will be much better utilised if he walks in to bat when the ball is 40-50 overs old. These additional runs and the momentum can prove to be the difference between a score of 280-290 and 400.

The Bigger Issue

Of course, the above problems are only symptoms of a much bigger trend. With the overwhelming importance given to ODI and T20 cricket, batsmen all over the world have become used to playing on flat pitches, which offer little or no help to the bowlers (especially seamers).

As a result, when a test match is played on a pitch with some grass, modern batsmen are found lacking in technique and temperament to grind out a long innings. It turns out to be a low-scoring affair and one where ‘the men are separated from the boys’. Cricket administrators the world over need to consider the effect of bang-bang cricket on the quality of test match batting. But that can be left for another day.

For now, I’d like to see Dhoni batting at #5.

DRS and the Role of Technology in Cricket

The story so far...

The DecisionReview System (DRS) has captured the attention of everyone who has anything to do with cricket. From the administrators and players, to fans around the world, people have been discussing and debating the utility of DRS and accuracy of the technologies available.

The issue created headlines quite often through the summer. On a few occasions during India’s tour of England, Hot-Spot went cold. Before this series, Hot-Spot was considered 100% foolproof. It also had BCCI’s stamp of approval. However, it regularly failed to detect fine edges, and was later dumped for India’s home series.

Then we had the Phil Hughes’ LBW in Sri Lanka. Anyone who saw the incident could tell that the ball would have missed off stump. However, Hawk-Eye made a ‘tracking mistake’ and showed the ball to be hitting leg stump. Based on this erroneous Hawk-eye tracking, the batsman was adjudged Out. The matter was then referred to the ICC by the officiating umpires.

The Disagreement

The biggest point of contention here is the use of Hawk-eye, which not only tracks the ball’s actual trajectory until it hits the bat or pad, but also attempts to extrapolate the ball’s path after impact. The BCCI has maintained strong reservation about the accuracy of this Hawk-eye projection.

To complicate matters, the creators of Hawk-eye have confessed that the projection may be inaccurate beyond a distance of 2.5m. In other words, if the ball hits the batsman’s pad at a distance of over 2.5m from the stumps, Hawk-eye cannot accurately predict whether the ball was actually headed for the stumps.

Technology vs Umpires

Technology has been increasingly (and successfully) adopted in cricket for decision making and for an enhanced viewing experience. However, the ICC needs to define and articulate the precise role of technology in cricket. There needs to be a clear distinction between the role of the umpire and the role of technology. Should we use technology to assist the umpires, or should technology be allowed to take over?

While we all want umpiring decisions to be 100% accurate, if we allow technology to take over completely, then the on-field umpires will soon become redundant. Steve Waugh in his autobiography wrote that leg spinner Stuart MacGill once said to an umpire, “Your job is to hold my sweater and count to six.”

Does cricket want its umpires to be reduced to such menial existence? Thankfully, cricket lovers all across the world consider the umpires to be an integral part of the game.

Drawing the line

So, where do we draw the line between the role of technology and the role of the umpire? This, in my view can be laid down by adopting a simple philosophy. “Technology should provide factual evidence and the umpire will make the judgement.”

This statement has the potential to clear all confusion around the DRS. The key phrase here is “FACTUAL EVIDENCE” i.e. evidence of an event that has definitely happened.

If we look closely at all the moments when the (technology-aided) 3^rd umpire is called for (stumpings, run-outs, doubtful catches, etc), we notice that, in all these cases, the cameras only show factual evidence. In the case of Hot-Spot, the evidence of an edge is factual, i.e. appearance of the hot spot suggests contact between the bat and ball. Based on this factual evidence, the 3^rd umpire makes an Out/ Not-out judgement. The same philosophy should be applied to the use of Hawk-eye by the 3^rd umpire.

The Way Forward

Let’s look closely at the proposed use of Hawk-eye for an LBW decision that has been referred to the 3^rd umpire. From the moment the ball leaves the bowler’s hand till it hits the batsman’s pad, hawk-eye gives factual evidence of the ball’s trajectory, and its point of contact with the pitch and with the batsman (height and line of impact). This is where Hawk-eye must STOP.

Beyond this point of impact, the hawk-eye gets into prediction mode and extrapolates the path that the ball would have taken had the impact not occurred. This extrapolation goes beyond the limits of “factual evidence” and technology transgresses into the jurisdiction of the umpire. Based on factual evidence of the actual trajectory of the ball, point of impact, distance from the stumps, etc., it should now be the 3^rd umpire’s role to adjudicate whether the ball would have hit the stumps, and whether the batsman should be adjudged LBW. 

An obvious counter-argument here would be: “How do we guarantee 100% accuracy from the umpires in such situations?” While 100% accuracy can never be guaranteed, the umpires can always be trained to make LBW decisions based on “factual evidence” provided by technology. Perhaps, umpires can make use Hawk-eye simulations to enhance their judgement of a ball’s trajectory. That is the ideal scenario – where technology will help umpires make better decisions. And both will live happily ever after.

T20 World Cup – India’s prospects

The T20 World Cup is back! After the IPL circus, we’re back with cricketers playing for their country, with patriotic emotions and passions riding high.

India are the defending champions and overwhelming favourites, boasting of (arguably) the best T20 line-up of them all. And with their vast experience after 2 editions of the IPL, the Indian squad is supposed to be the most ‘experienced’ in this format of the game.

However, many forget that before the inaugural T20 World Cup, India had never played a T20 international, there was no Indian domestic T20 tournament, and absolutely no experience of T20 cricket. So why should experience be a decisive factor now?

I don’t think experience is going to be all that important. Instead, the following 5 factors will be critical to India’s performance.

1. The Fatigue Factor and Injuries
Objective reasoning would suggest that most of the Indian players should be physically and especially mentally tired after a gruelling 5 weeks of IPL, which only followed 2 years of non-stop cricket. Fatigue is bound to creep in.

The squad already has 2 injured soldiers - Zaheer and Sehwag. Their exact fitness status is a secret. They might recover in time, but what if others get inured? We have to keep our fingers crossed for captain Dhoni, as shockingly the selectors have chosen not to pick a backup wicket keeper (opting for Ravindra Jadeja who will find it hard to get a game anyway).

It remains to be seen how the players conquer mental fatigue as well. But given that they are defending a world cup, I am certain they will be motivated through and through. MSD will ensure that!

2. Batting Line-up
Rohit Sharma has been the stand-out performer in the warm-up games, giving Dhoni a happy worry about the opening combination. Both Sehwag and Gambhir failed to live up to expectations in the IPL. Gambhir’s lack of timing is a worrying aspect, while Sehwag’s form is unknown. I’d suggest that Rohit Sharma be given an extension at the top; this might just be the tournament where he shows his potential as a future superstar.

Raina is my choice for #3, but Dhoni has taken that position in the warm-ups. In my mind, Raina and Yuvraj should come in ahead of Dhoni, who is an ideal finisher. Undoubtedly, India has the strongest top 6 of all. Will they deliver? We’ll know soon.

3. The Bowling
All those who believe that IPL was an indicator of performances at the World Cup should take a look at Ishant Sharma and RP Singh. Ishant was very ordinary in the IPL and has been the standout bowler in the warm-ups. RP Singh took the purple cap, but has been pathetic in the warm-ups. Praveen Kumar hasn’t been special either. With Zaheer’s injury, pace bowling is surely a serious weak link.

Harbhajan will walk into the side, and will be heavily relied upon. Pragyan Ojha outbowled him in the IPL. But in Dhoni’s scheme of things, he may not get into the 11.

4. The all-rounder quandary
A balanced attack for English conditions in June should almost certainly have 4 seamers, (perhaps 3 regular seamers and an all-rounder). Irfan Pathan is seamer-all-rounder. But his bowling is simply not good enough. Batsmen relish his bowling, and almost all his wickets come when batsmen go after him. He is just too big a risk, especially considering that bowling is our weak link.

Elder brother Yusuf is the spinner-all-rounder in contention. He is a proven hard-hitter, except a near inability against short-pitched bowling. He cannot command a place in the top 6, and we have plenty of part-time spinners who can pitch in with 2-3 overs.

All-in-all we have nothing to be proud of our all-rounder strength. This is where India falls behind South Africa (with Kallis and Morkel) and New Zealand (Oram and Styris).

5. Captain Cool - Dhoni
Over the last 2 years, Dhoni has emerged as a great motivator and leader. He has the ability to get the best out of his players, and the knack (or luck) of making the right moves at the right time. Never before has an Indian team been overwhelming favourites to win a World Cup. Dhoni's leadership is the biggest influence on this team. He will motivate his team to shake off all mental fatigue and give their best.

However, his fitness is of major concern. Behind the wickets, he is highly prone to finger injuries, especially when he stands up the stumps for Praveen Kumar or Irfan Pathan. Without a backup keeper India has taken a big risk, and we can only hope that Dhoni avoid injuries thru the tournament.

Speaking of his captaincy, he is also known to favour all-rounders. This came to the fore in the IPL as he persisted with a hugely disappointing Jacob Oram, despite having Makhaya Ntini on the bench and the Chennai Super Kings’ bowling being mauled in every game. If his affinity for all-rounders continues, the Pathan brothers might both get into the playing 11, at the expense of regular bowlers.

Time and again his out of the box moves have proved critics wrong. We have to just wait and watch. Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainities, and T20 can only bring in more unbelievable surprises.

How IPL will hit Test Cricket (Part 2 of 2)

To justify my last post, we witness the case of Chris Gayle – the West Indies cricket captain. As if going straight from T20 to test match cricket wasn’t bad enough, the Calypso King chose to play one more game for his IPL team which cannot win even if the match was fixed for them. He joined his team 2 days prior to the 1st test match, starting today. With the WI batting failing miserably in the tour games, the team badly needed their skipper but he's more interested in earning the big bucks. This is only the beginning of the damage that IPL will do.

3. A window for IPL, another window for Champions League…
There have already been some requests for a window in the international cricket schedule for the IPL. Not surprisingly, these requests (or demands) have come from the IPL promoters themselves.

These demands may seem to be very ambitious. But today, money rules the world, and cricket is no different. Given its humungous financial strength, the BCCI enjoys most of the power and clout. Comparatively, ICC and most of the cricket boards are extremely weak, and often have to give in to the atrocious demands of BCCI.

If the IPL circus continues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they manage to bully ICC into creating a separate window for the IPL. That will be the proverbial ‘inch’. The goons will then want a window for the ‘Champions League’. Who knows what could happen after that!

4. Injuries, injuries and more injuries
Many cricket fans may not know this, but Mathew Hayden played through IPL 2008 with a niggling ankle injury. He did not have a great 1st season, and the ankle did not get the rest needed. Hayden had to play through a tough international schedule without any rest. He then lost his form and runs dried up. The pressure on him increased and the selectors took him to the brink. He had no option but to end his Australia career. This is the first instance of IPL causing a (great) cricketer to relinquish national duties, there will be many more.

This year Jacques Kallis is playing with a thumb injury. And then there is the curious case of Dwayne Bravo. Apparently, he is not fit enough to play test matches, but somehow, ODIs and T20s are fine. So he’s raking in the moolah while West Indies is represented by some mediocre newcomers.

I have not even touched upon the most infamous injury story of the year. The story of Andrew Flintoff, who re-injured his knee and had to go in for surgery! He will miss the West Indies series, and has been left out for the T20 World Cup as well. The papers in England are full of debates and hate-columns. Unfortunately the Indian media lacks people of integrity and/or courage to come out with the facts and some sincere analysis of the state of affairs.

The injury epidemic has now hit the Indian cricketers as well. Our bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan has hurt his left shoulder. Sehwag and Yuvraj have split webbings. Captain cool Dhoni has a back problem and a finger injury. Being the only keeper selected for the T20 WC, this injury could have serious repercussions.

All in all, there is nothing positive (for cricket) coming out of the IPL circus. If anyone feels the IPL has introduced anything positive to the sport, I’d love to have a debate.

How IPL will hit Test Cricket (Part 1 of 2)

Ace shooter and India’s 1st Olympic individual gold medalist, Ahbinav Bindra calls the IPL – “an over hyped cricket tournament”. I would call it, “the most over hyped circus ever - in a cricketing disguise”.

I hold the strong view that the IPL will cause damage to the real cricket - test cricket. In fact, it has already started to do so. Let me explain how…

1. Corporatisation of cricket

IPL is changing the way teams are oriented. From a tradition of national teams and national cricketing boards, IPL teams are owned by franchisees. This model has been adopted from football, where professional footballers are contracted to play for professional clubs. This is also the model followed by American leagues.

Many would argue that corporatisation will bring in more professionalism into cricket, and benefit the Indian economy as well. However, we must realize that unlike football or the American sports, cricket is a sport played in multiple formats.

We have the original test cricket for the purists and then the ODI and T20 formats for the fans who do not necessarily understand the intricacies of cricket, but follow it for the entertainment value. The shorter versions obviously attract a larger and younger viewer base, thus making them more attractive to corporate sponsors, i.e. they are more ‘marketable properties’.

Let’s not be under any illusion - Corporates are not interested in developing cricket; they just want to make money. If corporates had it their way, professional cricketers would be playing for 365 days a year. And of course, we will never see corporates line up to buy franchisees for a world test championship! Corporates do not want the slow boring form of test cricket; they want the bang-bang of 20-20.

2. IPL will overlap with international schedules

Over the years, we are seeing more and more international cricket being played. An international team plays around 80-100 days of cricket every year. These days, it is very rare for a team to not have any fixture for even a month at a stretch. The international cricket calendar was already jam-packed. And to top it off, we now have the IPL.

The IPL demands at least 5-6 weeks from international players. Obviously, for the first 2 seasons, many foreign players could not participate for the entire tournament; they had to return to national duties. But all national boards are not that financially strong to compel their players to give priority to representing their country over their franchise.

The Sri Lankan tour to England has been the first casualty. The board (shamefully) had to bow down to their players’ demands and opt out of the scheduled England tour. England had to then schedule a series with the West Indies, to salvage their home season.

This is the first instance where the IPL circus has hit the international cricket schedule. If IPL gets stronger, there will be even more instances of cricket tours getting cancelled. Needless to say, India will not have any cricket matches for the 6 weeks of IPL.

More on this in part 2...

IPL now goes international

Two great stories emerged last weekend. One was India’s comprehensive victory in the Hamilton test, the first test win in New Zealand for 33 years. The second was of the IPL deciding to move out of India. But for all the history and joy associated with the test victory, the IPL story has created a much bigger stir in the cricketing world and the media.

The desperate situation that IPL finds itself in today makes me very very happy. Let me explain why…

The motive behind the IPL
IPL is not an event of national pride. It is not even a cricketing event. In fact, IPL is a business model that has promised big profits for all stakeholders - the BCCI, franchisees, sponsors, broadcasters, and the cricketers themselves. All stakeholders except the most important of them all – CRICKET.

If the development of cricket was among the priorities of BCCI, we would have seen much more interest and coverage for the domestic competitions – the Ranji, Irani, Duleep and Deodhar trophies. There could have been a domestic T20 competition on the lines of similar events in England, Australia, South Africa, etc. We could have some teams sign up international stars to add the glam quotient.

But all of that would not have satisfied the humungous appetites of the goons that run Indian cricket. They wanted to make it big, with corporate houses buying teams, cricketers being auctioned off like prostitutes or slaves in the olden days. So, the only motive behind this entertainment circus is money.

The Political connection
The biggest problem with world cricket today is its administration. It is not run by people who understand the game. Neither is it run by professionals with prior experience of sports management. The problem is especially damaging in India, where the people in charge are either corrupt politicians, or some rich influencers who can throw some money around to make lots more.

Any aspirant of a top BCCI position must have significant political affiliations. That was exactly the formula used by Lalit Modi. Unfortunately, BJP lost the Rajasthan state elections, and after that, Modi lost his clout in the Rajasthan Cricket Association. That made him weak in his home turf, and with the Congress at the helm in Parliament, he obviously cannot pull as many strings. Dirty, Dirty politics!

The Franchisee dilemma
Cricket is India’s #1 passion. The country stops when the national cricket team is on the field. So, it is not at all difficult to rope in the corporates who can use such a platform to reach out to Indian masses. That’s exactly what attracted big names like Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya, and other (stupid) corporate houses to put in hundreds of millions of dollars into this ambitious project.

The model first ensured that BCCI would make profits. Most of the franchisees would take at least 3-4 years (of successful IPL) to break-even.

With so much at stake, the franchisees have no option but to support BCCI in whatever steps they take to ensure that IPL2 happens. It was not mere coincidence that we heard all team owners express full support to BCCI. And they do not have an exit route; nobody will invest (bet) in this circus given the economic downturn. Franchisees have to rake in whatever sponsorship they manage to get, and pray that somehow their losses this year are minimized.

Where now?
At this moment, the BCCI is considering 2 options to host the IPL – England and South Africa. These are the only 2 countries where cricket can be played in April and May, and the telecast can coincide with prime time in India. The boards are more than willing to accommodate the IPL on its grounds. And why not? Why should anyone mind the extra buck?

Common sense and knowledge of adverse weather conditions in England would suggest that South Africa should be the obvious choice. But there seems to be some powerful lobbying for the games to be held in England. The economics would tilt the decision in favour of England. Given the huge expat population, we can expect some good crowds for the matches. Some reports suggest that the Indian team management (Dhoni and co.) want the matches in England, so as to get some valuable practice before the T20 World Cup there.

I would like this to happen, and to see how many matches get washed (or even snowed) out. I wonder how many sponsors would be willing to stick around thru the chilly journey to England!

What lies ahead…
The next year (if IPL lasts that long) will be even more interesting. IPL plans to host matches in March – April to avoid a clash with the T20 World Cup in West Indies. It will then clash with the exam season. This will mean that the student/ youth segment (and their families) who make up the largest segment of audience (either in-ground or on TV) will give the matches a miss.

Lower audiences will mean lesser ticket revenues. Lower viewership will mean lesser sponsorship revenues. All this will translate into losses for the franchisees (the biggest losers in the whole circus). Ultimately the IPL will lose the pillars it stand on and hopefully, should fold up – the sooner the better.

Summarizing..
The IPL wants to change the face of international cricket. The goons promoting it want to take all romance out of our #1 passion and make cricket a business. They were cheeky enough to lay the blame of the IPL2 fiasco on the non-cooperation from the government and political reasons for the fiasco. So much for climbing the BCCI ladder using political affiliations themselves!

Indian Cricket is the ‘Goose that lays golden eggs’. BCCI, instead of nurturing the goose, wants to cut it open and have all the eggs at once. They want to fill their coffers and usurp all the power they can using this money. Now, it’s their karma hitting back. Hopefully, this should see a major change in cricket administration, and better days and years ahead!