India’s loss to Aussies not a surprise

Once again India has lost a series abroad, losing the first three one-day matches in the five-match series against Australia. This should not be a surprise for the impartial followers of the game because they know India lacks bowlers who can consistently perform to win matches abroad. So even if India piles up huge scores regularly, the Australians will manage to achieve the target without much of a struggle. It’s time everyone accepted the truth that except on Indian pitches, Indian bowlers are unable to get any of the top teams to struggle.

This has been the trend for the last few years and yet nothing has been done to seriously address this issue. The ardent Indian supporter will console himself by saying that when foreign teams tour India they too struggle; hence this series defeat is not a big issue. This is like admitting that ‘we are happy being kings on home wickets, and any series played abroad is meant to give the opponents too a chance to win!

The mystery on why India cannot produce match-winners on foreign soil will remain unsolved or may never be addressed at all. There would be a few debates over this for a few days, and then very soon they will fizzle out. Soon a home series will be staged and a match-winner, mainly a spinner, will emerge and the issue will be completely forgotten.

Slow pitches