ANOTHER LOSS IN ICC FINAL Urgent Need for Fresh Ideas, New Mindset

Another final, another defeat and Team India’s record in the knockouts at ICC events now reads 8-0 since 2013. While the final result may not reflect it, India was beaten comprehensively by Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final by 209 runs. At no point in the match was India ahead of the Aussies, clearly highlighting the vast difference in the approach of the two teams. It’s happened plenty of times in the past decade that the star-studded Indian line-up comes apart at crucial moments – and fritters away the hard work done over a period of time.

NATION WANTS TO KNOW...
Questions are mounting which need answers from the Indian camp. But for those to be answered there needs to be a clear understanding of what the problem areas really are. Terrible team selection has been a constant irritation with Indian cricket over the past few years. During the 2021 WTC final, India picked both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin when the conditions warranted the need for another fast bowler. This time, it was the other way round as Ashwin was dropped to accommodate an extra pacer – but that at a time when he is the number 1 ranked bowler in the ICC rankings. Clearly, the Indian team management, earlier during Kohli’s captaincy and now under Rohit, is misreading conditions and not selecting their best team combination.

WEATHER CONDITIONS
When the weather is overcast, anyone can tell you that the conditions are conducive to fast bowling. But India’s knowledgeable think tank needs to remember that ultimately a team needs to pick its best bowlers – and surely the World’s No 1 ranked bowler can’t be asked to sit out of crucial encounters simply because he is not a seamer but a spinner!

REASON FOR INDIA’S FAILURES
Another reason for India’s failures is that Indian batsmen have been struggling under pressure in such knockout matches. Barring the 2016, T20 World Cup semi-final that India lost to West Indies where India smashed a total of 192, the batters have fared poorly in crunch situations. It’s high time for Indian batsmen to take a leaf out of the English team’s style of play and adapt to ‘Bazzball’ cricket. As the T20 game has moved the focus from defence to aggression, and cricketers are now more assured of their attacking game, most experts believe it will be better for Indian batsmen to usher in a new era of batting with their aggressive style of play in all formats of the game - including in Test cricket.

TALK ABOUT TRANSITION MUST
After the defeat in the WTC final, talk about transition for the next cycle is inevitable. With several players in the side on the wrong side of 30, the team sure needs to take some tough selection calls. After the WTC defeat in 2021, a similar chatter had begun but the only major player dropped was Wriddhiman Saha. So, the big question is whether the aging war horses will now make way for new and fresh players like Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh? And will they get a fair chance to showcase their talents and will they be given a long rope to hone their skills?

LESSON TO BE LEARNT
The other big lesson that needs to be imbibed is that BCCI and selectors need to focus not so much on ‘individuals’ but on building an entire team. Despite the money and the glamour surrounding the Big Names, it’s a valid question that some experts have raised as to when will Team India start putting focus on the team and not on a few individuals? This was also recently pointed out by Gautam Gambhir in an interview where he blamed the media and the fans saying that our nation is obsessed with individuals rather than a collective effort which has become a big reason for India’s lack of success at big events. If this tendency is not rectified on priority, we may end up with more of the same goof ups and failures!

UPCOMING ODI WORLD CUP
But before the next WTC cycle, we have the upcoming ODI World Cup that India will be hosting in October-November this year. Can India triumph on home soil? Does Team India have the will and firepower to combat England, Australia and New Zealand who all play an aggressive and fearless brand of cricket?

For the moment, there are more questions than answers confronting BCCI and Team India. More than anything else, what India needs urgently is a mindset change and the courage to ring in major, even drastic, change. As the old saying goes, ‘Fortune favours the brave’ but whether the BCCI and Team India are ready to take crucial decisions is the key question for a brighter future.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Siddhaarth Mahan The writer is a specialist on Sports and Cinema who works as an actor in the Hindi film industry