The new year is a few days away and all that can mean, is that we are moving closer and closer to the start of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Team India are as most you know already in Australia playing a 4 Test series followed by an ODI series with both the hosts and England. Basically, this is India's attempt to acclimatise to the conditions and be ready to defend the title they rightfully won 4 years ago.
Will I dwell on the ODI series and the World Cup right now? No. I'd rather take my sweet time and put in few words to rightly share my two cents about the ongoing Test series that is now into the 3rd instalment.
India are at this point at the end of Day 3 on 462 for the loss of 8 wickets, with King Kohli getting out in the last over of the day on 169 - great effort but the timing of losing one's wicket does have to be questioned not for the 1st time but actually the second time in this series. India are of course 2-0 down and to be honest, I do believe a draw is what is going to happen with respect to this test but then again I could be wrong.
I am what people call - a very passion cricket lover and more than anything I love payig the game and if I am not playing then watching Team India is my next love and for some reason and like the many millions of Indian fans that exist world wide, I just can not explain - WHY IS IT THAT OUR MOODS ARE COMPLETELY BASED ON THEIR PERFORMANCES?
When the team does fantastically well, like Rohit Sharma scoring another double hundred then everyones FACEBOOK status has exactly the same thing but when India lose then then either people are too upset to announce it on FB and the handful of people (such as myself) make it a point to vent my frustrations out in the open otherwise I'll come home and people will tell me - IT'S ONLY A GAME. Well its not!
This current Test series has pretty much put me all emotions I can have when it comes to cricket and after the end of today's play, I thought it was high time to just write it out. India could have potentially been 2-0 up at this point but if you had to be slightly cautious the scoreline would have either read 1-1 or 0-0 and worse case 0-1 NOT 0-2 and you never 0-3 if our performance continues in such a way.
Fine.. I can understand the lost of the 1st test, with Kohli getting out at the time he did, the selection of Karn Sharma over Ashwin and in my opinion playing Saha over Naman Ohja. India were attacking all the way and that was a loss I honestly didn't mind seeing as that was India going down fighting. Kohli had actually not done a bad job as captain for the first time but enter Dhoni back into the fray as incoming captain. To try and understand how India lost that second test just escapes as I fail to understand that how can a team that 1. Scores 311/4 on the Day 1. 2. Has Australia at 121/3 and 230 odd for 6 to eventually allow them to make 505 to then be bowled out for 224 and lose the test by 4 wickets. If India hadn't collapsed the way they did or even hadn't allowed the Aussie tail to pile on the runs, India would have cruised to the win and squared the series yet as usual Mahi let the game meander on and what has become a common for this team, allowed the tail to add invaluable runs to total that should have never been possible against any other attack.
Yes, India did also have a number of bad decisions go their way in both tests but then the question arise - WHY SAY NO TO DRS??? And Mahi's reaction to this makes absolutely no sense what so ever. You are disappointed with umpires decisions and you want them to be more consistent but do not forget about human error and when DRS is there on offer, why not take it? Just because of Ian bell being given not out in the 2011 World Cup? You have to move forward and stop looking back.
What will happen in the remainder of the series I do not know but things have to change. India have to learn to close out the tail. India have to learn to take responsibility. India have to think of the idea of whether Dhoni is the right man to lead the Test side. We have to be as ruthless as our opposition and we just are not at that level by a long way. We show glimpses but that is just not enough - CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY!
