By Anil Kumble
India have always been poor starters, so those who have followed Indian cricket for a while wouldn’t have been too surprised by the result of the first Test against England. Even in the past, we have tended not to give too much importance to practice games, and that has consistently shown in the first Test of a series.
These days, with the international calendar being what it is, you get only one practice game. It is imperative to approach the warm-up game like you would a Test match. Purely with the wisdom of hindsight, I am not sure if that happened. Also, the fact that your leading bowler breaks down on the first day in favourable conditions doesn’t help. For one thing, it leaves you disheartened; for another, it puts the opposition on a high because their confidence goes up and they know it’s mainly about seeing off the other two fast bowlers because spinners generally won’t make much of an impact in the first two days of a Test match in England.
Furthermore, leading up to the Lord’s Test, there was a lot of rain, which meant the players didn’t get too much scope to spend time outdoors, in the nets. A combination of all these things perhaps caused India to back off slightly early when England were batting. Having said that, England played really well. They are used to the conditions, and they were ready for the series. Their preparation and approach showed that they are keen to get to that number one status.
There is no disputing the fact that India need to tighten up, and quickly. Batting has generally been our strength, and the aim of the batters must be to make it very, very difficult for England to take 20 wickets. Unfortunately, apart from Rahul and to an extent Raina, no one else showed that kind of resolve at Lord’s. As it is, without Sehwag, there is no one to take the fight to the opposition. The mindest of the top order is different when Viru gets runs. Also, players like Sachin and Gautam, Zaheer and Yuvraj — though he didn’t figure in the playing eleven — were all a bit undercooked going into the Test because they had not played in the West Indies.
In my opinion, lack of preparation, to an extent, and lack of application from our batters cost the team dear. The Lord’s track was not really tough to bat on or as demanding as some of the others can be. Then again, in England, you never feel set or settled because conditions can change drastically during the course of one day, so the application has to be there right throughout and I didn’t see that.
The one good thing about this team is that it doesn’t harp too much on the losses. I?am not sure how Duncan Fletcher will react to the defeat, but the team per se is used to it. Knowing that this team has come back hard from similar situations in the past is very encouraging. They will certainly miss Zak in the second Test — I don’t think he will be fully fit, and even if he is, he will be better off sitting the match out because the hamstring will keep working on the back of his mind — but I was impressed with how well Praveen bowled in the 1st innings and Ishant in the 2nd.
It’s important that they find support, and I?am hoping Sreesanth will provide that. I will pick him ahead of Munaf for the next Test though both haven’t played too much cricket in the last two months or so. I am very confident that the team will fight back. We did that in 2007, when we scrambled a draw at Lord’s and won at Trent Bridge. I see no reason why we can’t pull off an encore.