Glenn McGrath: Indian fielding was horrendous, batting very poor

Glenn McGrath

Legendary Australian pacer Glenn McGrath has credited “horrendous fielding” and “very poor” batting as the reasons for India’s dismal outing in England in the five match Test series.

"India's fielding was horrendous and their batting was very poor, they seemed to have forgotten the basics," said McGrath in an interaction with Hindustan Times in Delhi.

The right-arm seamer who is in charge of the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai has termed that India players need to go back to the basics and "a lot has to change" if this team is hoping to compete in the next away tour at Down Under.

India, playing in its first 5-match Test series since 2002, suffered three straight defeats after getting into the lead in the second Test at Lord’s. Commenting on the impact of fatigue in India’s embarrassing losses, the bowler with 563 Test wickets said it is part and parcel of the game.

"Playing at this level, five tests should not be an issue. I wanted to play every Test and bowl every second over of a Test match when I used to play. They need to get back to the basics, work on their fielding and their batting," the 124-Test veteran said.

The 44-year-old refused to single out captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher as the reasons for the series defeat in which the batting collapsed remarkably on numerous occasions. India never managed to cross 200 in its last 5 innings, losing wickets in a hurry. The last two Test matches ended within three days time, inviting the New South Wales-born cricketer to call it as a collective underachievement.

"No one person can be blamed for this performance as this is a collective failure. People will look to blame the captain and the coach but the team failed as a unit," the ‘Pigeon’ said on India’s 1-3 series loss.

The World Cup winner picked Varun Aaron and Ishwar Pandey as the best out of India’s next generation of fast bowlers.