The downslide: 3 irrational reasons given for India’s debacle in England

The overseas woes have continued in England. Things have not changed but what has changed is the list of reasons touted for Indias debacle which have grown bigger and irrational this time around. Here are some of the most illogical reasons given for the downslide.

#1 Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his leadership

Dhoni has been an unconventional customer right from the start of his career; his decisions have been quite amusing most of the times. Be it handing the last over to Joginder Sharma in the inaugural T20 world cup or promoting himself in the world cup final. Also there have been instances where his decisions have come under scanner. And this has happened only in the longest format of the game. But we cannot blame him for that; this is how he has been doing it right from his advent in the Indian line up. India have been blanked almost everywhere outside the subcontinent in the last few years. Of course, this has taken a toll on his captaincy but we do not have an apt alternative.

To blame him for the horrific show in England would be stupid. The last few Test matches exposed the chink in the Indian batting line up. From being 1-0 up to throwing away the series at 1-3, things took a U-turn for India. And then began the blame game, the game we Indians love to play. MS Dhoni was at the receiving end, he still is. The most ridiculous feature of this tour would be India’s horrific batting display.

Now coming to Dhoni’s captaincy, and to all those who think that India lost because of Dhoni’s captaincy just open up your mind and read the next few lines and apply some gray matter. India lost because of a poor batting display and is Dhoni’s captaincy responsible for that? Gambhir’s feet haven’t moved since 2011 world cup and is Dhoni responsible for that? Be it Shikhar Dhawan throwing away his wicket after a start, Rahane playing a silly shot every innings, Pujara not being able to figure out the gap between his bat and pad or a Kohli not being able to survive the first critical hours in England. All this happened only because Dhoni is the captain of India. Coming to the leg slip issue, this is one thing which hasn’t worked for Dhoni in test cricket. And we cannot blame him for that as he is somebody known for doing things, the unconventional way.

Dhoni doesn’t have any ‘sound’ technique when compared to the likes of Rohit Sharma, Rahane or Cheteswar Pujara. Point taken, but in spite of that he emerged as the second highest run-getter for his country. What else does somebody want? Indian team is in transition, agreed, but they were not able to survive even the first session which is regarded as the toughest in English conditions. If they could have waited for the skies to clear up, things would have become a bit easier for them. And they failed to do that just because a man called Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain of India.

#2 WAGS or just Anushka Sharma?

The most laughable and ridiculous thing to have happened in this tour is the issue related to wives and girlfriends of the players. This is indeed jiggery-pokery. Just because Virat Kohli’s girlfriend is a known face, he is at the receiving end. Why the hell is nobody questioning any other player whose wife has a low profile? Kohli fails and Anushka Sharma is blamed for his failure.

Kohli failed because there is a rough patch in everybody’s career. He has been mounting runs since the last few years and there are times when you hit a rough patch. He is a strong character and there are issues which have cropped up in his batting but he is capable of fixing those issues. These are early days for this young lad. But how can you blame Kohli’s girlfriend for his failure?

And the India manager went on to record and say that this is against Indian culture. Now how does culture come into play. The first point was a certain wife or a girlfriend accompanying a player on the tour. This is stupid because it does not matter. Dhoni’s wife has accompanied him everywhere. Then why did this issue achieve lime light this time around, Anushka Sharma is a star and this has enough weight to throw off a team manager’s shoulder. Had it been a low profile girl, nobody would have given it a thought.

The most amusing part is that of the India culture being involved in the list of reasons being touted as India’s failure. I mean how does it matter, according to the theory, this law states that “ A player accompanied by a girlfriend would score less runs than a player who has been accompanied by a wife”. I mean if I go on and ponder on this law, the article would deviate to a sex comedy side which I do not want to.

#3 IPL

There were times in Indian cricket that whenever the team went through a bad phase, Ajit Agarkar would get dropped. Now since he has retired the IPL has taken over from him. Something goes wrong and the IPL is blamed.

Let’s end this one briefly. IPL is the only platform which gives a player tons of international exposure. There were times when we only had a bunch of 25 guys who would be considered as a bench for Indian cricket. Now we have a bigger pool, thanks to the IPL. IPL does not destroy a players technique, in turn it enriches a player with loads of positive things about this game.

If we really want to produce players who can bat in England, then the BCCI should provide them the same green and bouncy pitches for domestic matches. Improve the pitches and then see the turn around. The Indian batsmen would continue to falter until and unless the quality at the grass root level is not improved upon.