India, Test Cricket No.1?

Let me tell you something; team India is sheer talent, nothing more nothing less.

About the coach and supporting staff, Indians always like a coach who likes to be behind the scenes. We all know what happened when Greg Chappell took some initiatives of his own. Indians do not like the idea of coach being the one who call the shots. We all know that coach is the ultimate power in other sports like basketball and football. Imagine the effort put by the supporting staff when we hear something like “Australians are coaching tail-enders to improve their batting skills”.

Indians are proud about our Sachin. What is his secret? As he always tells, it is his passion for the game. Unfortunately his younger generation is lacking passion and hard work. That is why we are not able to find a replacement for Sachin and Dravid.

We have to rethink our selection strategy especially those of youngsters. In the normal case the average age of a player who will be selected into Australian team is 24. By this time he would have played enough first class matches and will be matured. Do not wonder when most of them have a good debut match. But on the other hand Indian players are selected into the team when they are between the age of 20 and 22. Some youngsters are even selected based on their under 19 performances. Our youngsters will find it difficult to manage the fame and lots of money they are getting. This will affect their game. They should be given proper orientation.

Indians are clearly lacking professionalism. Look at what Harbhajan said about Chappell’s coaching methods. He said that they played under the fear of being dropped if they could not perform well. According to him this affected his game. One thing is clear, to him playing in the team is more important than India is playing with best eleven.

Indians always play with one bowler short. This is not a good strategy for a champion side which is expected to win most of the matches. This may work is the subcontinent but not in other places.

Indians always approach a series with a lack of intensity. Look at what happened in Bangladesh. Indians were shocked by them in the first innings. In the current series also things are no different.

Indians do not plan well before a series. They plan if they are constantly troubled by some opposition player. Gone are the days when players come and play. Now a lot of work is to be done at the minute level. Let us hope for that. So I will consider India a champion side based on their performances against South Africa and Australia.