Thats what the Indian team might be feeling like right now.
MSD has said there is no point blaming schedule, but seriously it beats me. The BCCI can surely do better than give DICTAT to MSD and the commentator’s to not blame the scheduling.
This is what we all knew where we are to be tested, everyone knows we are flat track bullies, but Australia / South Africa where the bounce is where we have to prove ourselves. England / New Zealand to a certain extent. Amazingly, year after year, we talk of less preparation and yet year after year, the schedule is the same. 4 days into a country they are thrown in to the wolves.
It was painful to watch the top order having no clue how to cope. Whilst you saw that things could become easier as you spent more time, it must have been a great blow to their ego’s.
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This very thing could have been managed in two Warm up ODI matches without the glare of the camera and the spot light. A good 3-4 nets and atleast two warm up matches is what would have atleast given them a reasonable chance.
It is quite ridiculous that everyone keep’s saying MSD as captain has nothing left to achieve. If India really want to be counted as a top cricket playing nation in all conditions it will have to seriously look at changing their attitude to this.
For the record MSD or for that matter any Indian captain has never won a Test Cricket Series in South Africa or Australia. We have not managed a series victory in South Africa in ODI’s as well. MSD as a captain in Australia and England has a record of 4-0 in both nations in Test Cricket, I am sure he would like to change that stat.
As a cricket lover and follower of Indian cricket it hurts and aches. What I want more than anyone is our Board provide our players a fair chance first.
You cannot play on pitches that bounce waist high to pitches that fly by your ears in 4 days without any significant practice, let alone no practice matches.
As the tour progresses you will notice Indian batsmen get to grips and start looking comfortable, however, the problem is by the time they will get used to the conditions, the tour will be over.
This is surely not how you plan to prepare to play or win in places where you have historically always done badly. Unless there is clear priority that is set to India winning outside the sub-continent the board must use it’s dollar’s to actually enable the team to spend more days in these countries preparing and playing more practice matches before they enter the arena of international matches.
Anyone who has played serious cricket will tell you its a hell lot easier adjusting to bounce that becomes lower than when it becomes higher, one of the reasons why we struggle more when we travel and the Australian’s and South African’s don’t.
The BCCI must recognize that in a clash of ego’s of the administrator’s they are now not only losing out on opportunities to win in these places, but also showing that our player’s are actually inefficient instead of providing them a level playing field.
I am quite sure the tour only gets better from here, but seriously the board can avoid this pain every time we travel. It require’s no Einstein to figure this out.
Hitchy's World 