India Cricket

As more than 1.2 billion Indians celebrated their nation’s 68th independence day, 11 others haplessly surrendered to their erstwhile rulers on the cricket field.

August 15, 2014 could now well be remembered as the day India’s hopes of being buoyed by their new generation of cricketers came crashing down and plunged deep into the ocean.

When Sachin Tendulkar had retired in November last year, Indian fans looked ahead to the future with mixed feelings.

They were losing their favourite son and the last of the golden generation of cricketers who had taken the team to the pinnacle of the sport.

However, the talent, character and pluck shown by the next generation, spearheaded by the likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan, had left enough reason to be sufficiently optimistic about the future.

The whitewashes suffered in England and Australia in 2011 were a thing of the past. This new, young and aggressive Indian team wasn’t going to let that happen again.

A spectacular home season had allayed any fears, even though their next four tours spread over 12 months were all away from home, culminating at the 2015 World Cup Down Under.

Nine months later, India are back to square one and firmly rooted to it.

The process had begun in South Africa in December, when MS Dhoni's men let slip a glorious chance of going 1-0 up in the two-match series at Johannesburg.

The shambolic capitulation for 148 runs at the Oval on Friday, four less than what they managed a week ago in the first innings at Manchester, England, put the nail firmly in the coffin.

What was shocking was not their fourth consecutive sub-200 score in the series but the manner in which India had recorded them.

Talk all you want about having to play on a batsman’s graveyard of a pitch and in overcast conditions that are tailor-made for the hosts, the undeniable fact is that India’s batsmen batted with zero character, zero application and zero determination.

The Indian batsmen only have to look towards their captain Dhoni, who is far from being the most technically gifted batsman in the world but played two of his most gutsy and phlegmatic knocks on foreign soil to mitigate his team’s humiliation.

They can also look towards their English counterparts, who were under considerable pressure following the defeat at Lord’s but batted with oodles of application and resolve over the next couple of games to complement their bowling.

The conditions were unfavourable, the opposition bowling attack experienced and efficient in exploiting them, but the Indian batsmen were abysmal, and that is the sole reason they find themselves staring at a 3-1 series defeat—their win at Lord’s now appearing nothing more than an aberration.

Virat Kohli and Co. will soon realise, if they haven’t already, that they aren’t going to be given the luxury of time to settle into their roles by the impatient and vitriolic media and fans.

No amount of runs scored on flat tracks at home in short and meaningless bilateral series and the Indian Premier League are going to cover for shameful failures away from home.

No amount of relief can be gained from the fact that the long five-Test tour of England is almost over, with Mitchell Johnson and his mates waiting to receive them in November.

The way India are batting right now, another 4-0 loss in Australia, mirroring the one three years ago, would seem like an achievement. They seem broken beyond repair, and the next six months until the World Cup could see them being totally vanquished.

There couldn't be a more succinct definition of a false dawn in the English language than what we have witnessed on the cricket field between England and India in the last 20 days or so.

This was touted as India’s best chance for retribution after a humiliation suffered three years ago on English shores.

The inspiring victory over Alastair Cook’s deflated England team at Lord’s on July 21 seemed like the dawn of a new era of Indian cricket away from home.

Just over two weeks later, that blissful high was brought crushing down and battered down to such a low that it seemed like a football headline: 10-man England beat, nay, thrashed India—by an innings and 54 runs inside three days.

The margin could've been worse had Stuart Broad's baseball helmet protected his nose from a nasty bouncer.

And so, as we move on to the Oval for the fifth and final Test on August 15, the scenario looks eerily similar to the one 18 months ago when England had toured India in the winter of 2012-13.

From what looked like a certain whitewash in India’s favour after the first Test at Ahmedabad, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men capitulated to lose the next two matches to go into the final Test of the series with hopes of drawing the series hanging ominously on a flimsy thread.

India did not manage to save the series back then, and considering how they have performed at Southampton and Manchester, the odds are highly in favour of an encore.

A glance at the scorecards of the last two Tests points to only one reason as to why India lost: Their much-famed and hyped batting order failed to show up.

However, with just one Test to go and not much to choose from even with an 18-man squad at their disposal, India need to think ahead.

For all the batting inadequacies, India were also let down by poor captaincy and abysmal fielding.

Dhoni, who has never really had the word "positive" associated with his captaincy in the longer format—inexplicably so given his hugely successful exploits in the limited overs arena—reached a new nadir during this series.

Dhoni’s brand of conservative Test captaincy might pass off in home conditions, where the Indians are historically dominant, but his erratic record away from home is bringing the team down.

Dhoni’s tactics in the last two matches have especially raised concerns. From defensive team selection to setting negative fields and asking his bowlers to bowl a negative line to making seemingly mindless bowling changes, Dhoni appeared lost at sea navigating a ship that was fast sinking.

So farcical have some of his decisions been, such as starting the day on Saturday with Ravindra Jadeja with England in a precarious position, that he has managed to make Alastair Cook, someone who was equally criticised at the beginning of the series for his bland captaincy, look like a Sourav Ganguly.

The problem is that India do not really have a replacement skipper. Virat Kohli has always been talked about as the captain-in-waiting, but his form in this series begs to ask the question whether he is ready for it.

India need a captain who can lead by example and thrive come rain, hail or snow. As things stand, not a single member in India’s squad makes the cut.

If not captaincy yet, Dhoni should at least consider hanging up his gloves. At 33, he isn’t getting any younger, and this was evident in a string of costly errors behind the sticks in this series: from dropping catches to not going for catches, missed stumpings and fumbled run-outs.

India still have a lot to gain from the experience and fighting spirit that Dhoni brings to his batting—case in point being the first innings at Manchester, so he would make an ideal standalone No. 6 batsman.

However, for the specialist and important role of a wicketkeeper, India could do with the infusion of some young and energetic blood, which is abundant in the likes of Sanju Samson, or perhaps even someone older and more experienced like Wriddhiman Saha or Naman Ojha.

Dhoni has the prime examples of Kumar Sangakkara and Brendon McCullum to look at, who have found a new lease as just-batsmen after handing over their gloves in the latter stages of their career.

Dhoni has never played at any other position in his career, but as a leader and someone who is dotingly looked up to, he should consider swallowing some pride and making a few sacrifices and changes for the better of his team.

It is no secret that Dhoni is on the home stretch of what has been a spectacular career as India’s No. 1 choice as wicketkeeper batsman and captain across all formats. But the sign of a true leader is someone who is selfless, especially at a time when India desperately require a shake-up.

"Imagine being able to bowl that ball just once in your life," ESPN Cricinfo's Jarrod Kimber remarked on Twitter. 

"That ball" he was referring to was one from Varun Aaron that dismissed Moeen Ali on Day 2 of the fourth Test between England and India at Old Trafford.

"That ball" was one delivered from around the wicket, one that started wide before viciously swinging into the left-hander, one that seemed like a heat-seeking missile as it ripped through Moeen's defence to crash into his off-stump at blistering pace prior to lunch in a gloomy Manchester. 

As the Englishman trudged his way back to the dressing room, perhaps pondering if he'd just received the ball of the summer, the Indian speedster's figures read: 13.2 overs, three-for-40 and one battered stump. 

"Where's this fella been hiding?" quickly became the query ringing around the stands at Old Trafford.

On February 26 this year in a one-day international against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup, Aaron did something extremely rare for a Indian paceman: touch 150 kph. 

Clocked at 93.2 mph (149.99 kph), the 24-year-old made his ghastly figures of 1-74 from less than eight overs simply redundant with one unusually brisk delivery. 

Speed, after all, is the new (rediscovered) currency of seam bowling, thanks largely to Mitchell Johnson's savagery against England and South Africa. 

Thus, when a bowler—particularly a relatively fresh-faced one—claims a wicket with sheer pace, it becomes instantly significant. Like some kind of mark-this-date-on-the-calendar moment, as though it signals the emergence of new star. 

But it hasn't often worked like that for India. 

As recently as 2006, a strongly built seamer named Munaf Patel made his debut, hyped as the fastest speedster to emerge from the subcontinent in years. Sachin Tendulkar had even taken a special interest in Patel. 

In his maiden outing against England in Mohali, the right-armer claimed match figures of 7-97, the best performance in history by an Indian seamer playing his first Test. 

Then the inevitable struck. 

After a bright opening to his career, Patel's action and confidence fell apart as quickly as his fragile body, seeing his pace vanish. On the lifeless Indian pitches, he attempted to reinvent himself as a reliable (slow) back-up option.

He played his last Test in 2011 and finished with a career average nearing 40. 

Little more than a year after Patel's debut, Ishant Sharma—replacing the aforementioned seamer—stepped into the Test arena for India, possessing pace that was as notable as his hair. 

Also one to touch 150 kph—doing so while tormenting the great Ricky Ponting—Ishant was supposedly the "next best thing in Indian cricket," according to Steve Waugh. He bowled a spell in Perth that went into Indian mythology. 

Still only 25, he now bowls in the mid-130s and owns a Test average, like Patel, nearing 40. 

Before both Ishant and Patel, it was Irfan Pathan who excited those associated with India. On debut against Australia, the left-armer's combination of reverse swing and sharp pace had observers whispering that he was the brightest seam-bowling prospect to emerge from the subcontinent in years.

Sound familiar?

Pathan's Test career spanned just five years, ending in 2008 after averaging almost 50 across his last seven appearances. 

And therein lies the problem for Aaron: Being a truly fast-bowler from India is a way to wind up being a punchline to a joke.

Even those who have done it well (Javagal Srinath) have been worn down by expectation and barren strips of turf, reducing precocious fast bowling to something far more mundane. 

"Imagine being able to bowl that ball just once in your life."

Aaron just did. But he might not do it twice.

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Seventeen days ago, a spirited India won their first Test away from home in three years at Lord’s to draw first blood in this five-match series against England.

After the first day of the fourth Test between the two teams at Manchester, it seems more like 17 years.

For all of India’s will and application shown at Lord’s, the next six days of Test cricket have been abysmally poor. If the loss at Southampton could be blamed on losing a good toss, India have no such excuses to offer at Manchester.

Given that the pitch at Old Trafford is the fastest seen in this series so far, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was at an advantage when he called correctly at the toss and opted to bat.

For all the pace in the track and nip in the air due to overcast conditions, there are no two ways about the fact that it was a don’t-bat-last pitch.

When Dhoni backed his positivity at the toss by announcing as many as three equally encouraging team changes—with opener Gautam Gambhir replacing Shikhar Dhawan at the top, Ravichandran Ashwin coming in for the extra batsman Rohit Sharma and Varun Aaron getting a first game at the cost of Mohammad Shami—you couldn't help but feel that India meant business.

Nineteen deliveries later, pop went the optimism, cruelly bulldozed by the experience and skill of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in conditions that couldn't have been more ideal for them.

And so, instead of the Indian team finding its way into a new resurgence away from home, the ensuing collapse from 8-0 to 8-4 instead rekindled old, painful memories of similar disintegration on these shores in 1952 and 1974.

The only person that prevented an outright humiliation was the skipper, Dhoni (71 off 133 balls), who played one of his best and grittiest innings away from home to take India past 150, with some help from Ajinkya Rahane (24) and Ashwin (40)—the only two other batsmen to cross over to double figures.

In an innings riddled with six ducks—which equaled the Test record—Dhoni not only showed why he had decided to bat first on this track but also how to bat on it.

In no way was it a fluent and graceful knock. Nine of his 15 boundaries were scored in the third man/point region. His waltzes down the track and swipes outside off-stump to the quicks showed his suicidal tendencies. The amount of blows his body willfully embraced aggravated his masochistic character.

It wasn't pretty, but it was a brave knock—the true definition of a captain’s innings.

However, Dhoni’s heroics were not enough to save India the blushes of losing 16 consecutive sessions since that glorious fifth afternoon at Lord’s.

While a lot was not expected from India’s inexperienced bowling line-up in this series, the famed Indian batting arsenal was supposed to perform a lot better than dishing up three ducks in the top four.

Their middle-order linchpins in Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have so far been bowled over as easily as a bowling pin, considering the reputations that they brought with them into this series.

However, before the batsmen can think about making amends in the second innings, they will be hoping their bowlers discover their form quicker and give them a feasible deficit to chase and overtake.

If England’s lead crosses 150, India can kiss goodbye to the match and the series. If the visitors do not want to go to the Oval down 2-1, it is absolutely imperative that they win all three sessions on Friday, for a start.

And while that majorly depends on how the Indian bowlers find their rhythm and accuracy and learn from their opponents, the reins are in the hands of only one man.

Dhoni has copped a lot of criticism in his career for his conservative approach and tactics, which were on full display as recently as the Southampton Test.

A deja vu of leg theory and leg-side fields for the bowlers might slow England down, but it isn't going to halt them. It isn't going to get India anywhere near winning a session.

The way Dhoni approaches Day 2 with managing his bowling and fielding resources will determine the path this series will take. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Varun Aaron showed in the evening session that this pitch will still have a lot to offer for attacking bowling as the match progresses.

India have no choice but to go on the offensive in all departments. While the batsmen and bowlers have their work cut out, the fielders—especially the slip cordon—need to find a way to get the ball to stick to their palms, like their counterparts have so successfully managed.

England have been faultless for six days and deserve their pedestal in this series. India can begin with three sessions on Friday.

Ravindra Jadeja has been cleared. So has James Anderson.

India will be furious. 

On Friday, following a six-hour hearing in Southampton, judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis found both Anderson and Jadeja not guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct for their involvement in the alleged altercation that took place during the first Test at Trent Bridge, according to ESPN Cricinfo.

Anderson, accused of abusing and pushing the Indian all-rounder, escaped his Level 3 charge, which could have seen him suspended for up to four Tests, while Jadeja successfully overturned the verdict reached last week by ICC match referee David Boon that saw him fined for a Level 1 breach. 

The decision—one that initially comes across as an attempt at appeasement—seems unlikely to quell the controversy.

The issue here is not the seemingly tit-for-tat nature of the accusations, nor the cynical notion that India pursued it in an attempt to undermine the strength of the England team by pushing for Anderson's suspension. 

Instead, the issue centres on the inconsistency of the ICC's rulings and the precedent that has been set by Friday's verdict. 

Just a week ago, Jadeja was found guilty of a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct.

In an ICC release, per ESPN Cricinfo, Boon—who presided over the hearing—explained his decision to downgrade the offence but admitted an altercation did indeed take place:

While I was in no doubt that confrontation did occur, and that such conduct was not in the spirit of the game and should not have taken place, I was not comfortably satisfied that this was a Level 2 offence. Therefore, in exercising my discretion under Article 7.6.5 of the Code and having heard all the evidence, I was comfortably satisfied that Mr Jadeja had committed a Level 1 offence under Article 2.1.8 of the Code.

A confrontation occurred. Confrontations, of course, are not individual pursuits.

Jadeja, facing the lesser charge, is found guilty. Logical extension would suggest Anderson, up against the heavier charge, is guilty to some extent of something.

Yet, as of Friday, apparently not.

In the aftermath of Jadeja's guilty verdict, India captain MS Dhoni, who is understood to have been the major driver of India's campaign, according to Sidharth Monga of ESPN Cricinfo, expressed his strong opposition to Boon's decision.

Per Cricket Country, Dhoni said:

If you see what exactly happened... the umpire called 'lunch', and we started walking. I don’t want to take any individual's name, but one used foul language against Jadeja. I had to step in the middle. By that time, we had reached the ropes, and I thought the thing was defused. Then, when we were going through the members' area, I was ahead of Jadeja, who was a couple of yards behind me. Again, something happened. Something was told to him and he turned across to the individual. After that, he was pushed and he barely gained his balance. Then, he turned to see what was happening. On the basis of that, he is fined... not one word was spoken by him [Jadeja]. 

Anderson is a man who walks on the tight rope frequently. Recognised as "a player now well known to all but the most casual follower of the game as one of the most ingrained sledgers around," per David Hopps of ESPN Cricinfo, the fast bowler's confrontational style appears to have worn thin on England's visitors. 

"It does not take long to find an opponent, or a past opponent, who says there is nobody worse—even if they then admit it is a crowded field," Hopps added of the Englishman's verbal reputation. 

This, therefore, had become a line-in-the-sand moment for India. Despite the neglect shown to the prevention of on-field tension and altercations by umpires and the ICC alike, it seems Dhoni's India is on a mission to alter what is deemed acceptable in the heat of competition.

Understanding that the BCCI's might has the power to orchestrate change, it seems the Indian camp are on a quest to tackle a type of behaviour for which a gradual, reluctant acceptance has grown.

Not just about a single shove, India appear to be on a crusade against sustained conduct that is perceived by the visitors as offensive.

Already in this saga, the Indian camp had viewed Jadeja's initial guilty verdict as an injustice. That Anderson has been cleared of more serious wrongdoing just seven days later can only intensify that view. 

India will be irate.

Perhaps more concerning, however, is how Friday's verdict will shape Test cricket in the immediate future.

Suddenly, the game has a situation in which an acknowledged confrontation between two opponents exiting the field has been deemed acceptable.

By that precedent, where do future verdicts go in any subsequent altercations? How serious do the charges need to be before action is taken? If on-field sledging and verbal barbs can escalate to an alleged physical incident between players, how can issues of this nature be prevented if the causes continue to be neglected?

Certainly, Friday's decision may have been reached due to inconclusive evidence, evidence that the plaintiff—in this case, India—must provide.

But Boon and the ICC had already indicated that enough evidence had been put forward by England to see Jadeja fined last week, acknowledging that an altercation that "should not have taken place" actually did. 

Seven days later, that appears to count for nothing, leaving India to fume again, setting a dangerous precedent for future incidents at the same time. 

When India's squad for the current tour of England was named, the absence of Zaheer Khan (who turned out be injured) raised a few eyebrows...but not Bhuvneshwar Kumar's.

The 24-year-old has grabbed the opportunity of leading India's attack on a tough overseas tour with both hands, picking up 15 wickets in the three Tests so far. 

And even more important than that, despite Dale Steyn's impressive showing in Sri Lanka and late rallies from Jimmy Anderson and Moeen Ali, Kumar has won the coveted Bleacher Report World Cricket Bowler of the Month Award!

Prior to this series, Kumar was one of a pack of jostling, almost interchangeable, Indian seamers and had taken just nine wickets in six Test matches.

But the English conditions, despite delivering some benign wickets, have seen the swing-bowler extraordinaire claim two five-wicket hauls to firmly establish his name on the international scene.

The first "five-for" came at Trent Bridge test where, on an Indian-style pitch, Kumar almost single-handedly plunged England into big trouble until a freak last wicket partnership between Joe Root and Anderson sent the game into drawsville.

At Lord's, the paceman earned himself a place on the honour's board by using the ground's famous slope to take six for 82 in the first innings, a haul which included England's top-four batsmen. While a miserly, albeit wicketless return, in the second innings, piled the pressure on the homeside's doomed run chase.

OK, so things didn't quite go to plan at the Rose Bowl for Kumar or India, where, despite struggling with his length, he still collected four more scalps to add to his tally.

So where did this red-hot form come from? Kumar had bowled innocuously in two lethargic and wicketless warm-up games and, in fact, hadn't even played a red-ball game since a Test match against the West Indies in November 2013.

However, his 20 wickets in the 2014 IPL and an economy rate of 6.65 presumably did wonders for his confidence. And the early innings movement of the Duke ball in English also can invigorate bowlers.

Although, given that Kumar has removed 11 different England players among his 15 victims so far, his skills at finding reverse swing make him a major threat when the cherry loses its shine.

Finally, throw in his batting—Kumar has chalked up 228 runs in this series and averages over 28 in Test cricket—and, if he can sustain these levels, India may have a new Kapil Dev on their hands.