Kohli & Co turn ‘tigers at home’ again
It came as little surprise that Virat Kohli’s men have failed to buck the trend, that of India never winning a Test series in South Africa. They collapsed at 151 all out in chasing a stiff target of 287 on a wicket of variable bounce in the second Test at the Supersport Park, ensuring an unbeatable 2-0 lead for the hosts in the three-Test series.
The knives will be out again, with phrases like ‘paper tigers,’ ‘tigers at home’ thrown at them in random — though it has to be borne in mind that even the much vaunted batting line-ups in the past have failed to do the same.
A closer look at the series so far, however, reveals it was a lack of enough preparation time and faulty team selection that prevented the Indian team from at least putting their best foot forward. It was around November last year that captain Kohli had bemoaned the lack of adequate preparation time for a demanding series like this one, with the team scheduled to leave for South Africa barely four days after a pointless limited overs gig against the Sri Lankans.
The issue was never really addressed by the Indian cricket board, which could have flown the batsmen who are Test specialists but not engaged in the Lankan series (read: Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara or even an off-form Ajinkya Rahane) over to South Africa for some acclimatisation on the wickets with extra pace and bounce.
On arriving in South Africa, a somewhat complacent Kohli shrugged off the media query about the lack of playing at least one practice match. To him, and obviously the brains trust of Ravi Shastri and batting coach Sanjay Bangar, the twice-a-day net sessions would have been preparation enough to adapt and take on the likes of Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada. As things turned out, it was not enough as the top order was repeatedly found wanting in their shot-selection, except Kohli — who belongs to a different league.
The team management’s penchant for experimenting with the playing XI — in which the most galling one was that of replacing an impressive Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Ishant Sharma — will also raise uncomfortable questions even if the latter managed to pick up three wickets and put the brakes on South Africa’s first innings in Pretoria.
Any plus from the series so far? It’s got to be the captain’s counter-attacking 153 in the first innings at the just-concluded Test, and the efforts of the fast bowlers. That, however, will hardly be consolation enough for Indian fans in the ultimate analysis.
Looking ahead at what’s being billed as the most significant year for Indian cricket — what with the third Test at the Wanderers still to go and the England and Australia tours to follow — it will be a futile exercise to find scapegoats in a Shikhar Dhawan or Rohit Sharma, or scoff at young Hardik Pandya for one ultra casual run out. None of the top order batsmen have turned worse overnight, it’s just that a blueprint should be in place for preparing for the overseas tours.
Not so long back, there was a recommendation of roping in a certain Rahul Dravid as a consultant before and on overseas tours. Will the BCCI see some merit in the suggestion now?