When will India learn?

The Champions League T20 is on in South Africa and even before the tournament could get down to the business end, three teams from India are out of it and the other, just a match away from elimination. The Indians faring very poorly, even with four foreign players in their side. It is disheartening to see no Indian on the top of the run scorers list or wicket takers list. Delhi is in pole position as of now, but nobody knows what might happen in two days.

There are various reasons for this failure. Teams which have been quite unbeatable in the IPL have surrendered meekly to the force of the opposing teams. This is mostly due to the inexperience of the domestic players in foreign conditions and also because most of the other teams play as a single unit throughout the year in various domestic competitions and that allows them to work as as one, understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This in turn, enables them to be more competitive, whereas teams in the IPL get together only once a year, and that isn’t quite enough to gel together.

The Australian Cricket Board surprised one and all when they recalled all-rounder Shane Watson from the CLT20 when his team – the Sydney Sixers – were well on their way to making the cut for the finals. He could have been a vital cog in their journey and could have helped them win with the form that he is in. But the Australian board thought otherwise, and wanted to preserve the hard-hitting all-rounder for the upcoming series against the Proteas. The Indian players on the other hand, are having fun in CLT20 – like always. Their attitude hasn’t improved even after the defeat in the World T20.

Many feel that since Shane Watson is a fast bowling all-rounder, he needs to be preserved in order for him to be fit for the South African series. But even though we don’t have any all-rounder, we do have players who are on the better side of 30 and their fitness is waning with each passing day. Many players like Viru, Gauti and Sachin tend to get injured and this should be prevented, with a tough season ahead of us with teams like Australia, England and Pakistan due to visit us soon. Even our skipper has to get his rest ahead of this season because he looks worn out and jaded after the continuous dismal performances from his team.

The best option for these players would have been, skipping the CLT20 and playing some domestic games in order to regain their form or taking some rest and keeping themselves fit ahead of this season. Instead, they have gone to play in South Africa where their presence is not really needed by their team because this is T20 and anyone in the 15 are eligible and talented to play in the final XI, and it wouldn’t have made much difference to the team’s chances since the seniors are also not performing well anyway. The only people who would have missed them would be the sponsors who demand them to play, for obvious reasons.

The BCCI is the root cause for this rut. This system should change in order for India to regain the No.1 status in Tests. Our players are ageing and the board should preserve them for crucial upcoming series. We need a better system than this to look into these matters and to stop the team from losing crucial matches in home conditions. It would be a shame if India lets England or Australia win even a single match in our home conditions and we can only redeem ourselves by extracting revenge against them in the upcoming series, and for that we need a full strength team, raring to go.

This isn’t going happen in the present scenario and whether the team will make a comeback is a tough query to answer with the way things are going now.