In the recent three Test series (Sri Lanka, South Africa & Australia), VVS and Zaheer contributed significantly ensuring India drew or won the series and retained the top spot. Against Sri Lanka & South Africa, we were down one nil in the test series and came back (riding mainly on Laxman & Zaheer’s contributions) to square the series. In the series against Australia we went one up in the series at Mohali thanks to VVS. Laxman also contributed significantly in West Indies where we just managed to scrape through and win the series 1-0. In England, as usual we lost the first test and were in a position of strength to win the Second Test and comeback in the series(England were 126 for 8 wickets in the first innings and managed to cross 200 and from 266 for 4 we managed to lose the balance 6 wickets adding another 20 odd runs).
Gambhir getting injured, and the absence of a third specialist opener for the second test, saw the batting order being changed with Dravid opening and Laxman coming in to bat at number 3. Therefore if these two are back in the pavilion, there was literally no resistance left in the middle order. Laxman has been performing extremely well playing at number 5 and one fails to understand the logic behind sending him to bat at number 3, in cloudy seaming conditions in England. Sehwag and Sachin obviously lacked match practice and were under prepared for the series.
Technique & Commitment of some players needs to be closely investigated and severe disciplinary action needs to be taken for lack of intellectual integrity and commitment to Nation. One needs to clearly distinguish between playing for a club and playing for the country. We have reached top position with players like Kumble (who batted and bowled with a broken Jaw) and Laxman who managed to turn around hopeless Test Matches taking pain killers and battling severe Back Spasm.
Bowling department without Zaheer is pathetic and instead of unduly criticizing the batsmen, whose failure in this series needs to be considered as rare and one off, BCCI and Selectors need to immediately look towards strengthening our bowling. Ishant & Praveen are good, but both of them are injury prone and we require backups for them who are equally good. One wonders what went wrong with Munaf, Ashish Nehra & Irfan Pathan. Aswin or Ojha would have been far better spinning options in English conditions than Amit Mishra.
If Dhoni loses the toss or opts to bat first, and we field close to two days getting hammered all over the park with a weak bowling attack, the chances are that we will lose more often than winning Test matches.
