5 favourite topics that fans pick on to criticise Indian cricket team

There is no other cricket playingnation in the world that carriesasmuchexpectations as India does going into every match. The team has always beenunder a lot of pressure to perform,and the demands of the billion people cant always be met with. Just like in every other country that is crazy about a sport, every Tom, Dick, andHarry has acompletely different set ofstrategiesand playing XI, which they want India to take note of.Some will havean extremely unique angleto viewthe result of amatch.What is interesting is the fact that even the most bizarre andless conventional tactics put forwardby them has the chance of working out with cricket being the game of uncertainties, thereby making them a self-proclaimed expert.Starting from Indias lack of quality fast bowlers, fielding, fitness, batting standards to corruption, Decision Review System (DRS) and pitches,thelist is actually so large to choose only five. Let us see what are the five most favorite topicsan average fan will target the Indian team with.

#1 Team selection

An easy, obvious target. Even if ten out of the playing XI register convincing performances in a win, there will always be some stones thrown at the man who flops on the day. And you don’t need to get reminded of the reactions of agitated fans when the team faces an embarrassing loss (read: fans pelting stones at Yuvraj’s Singh house after the 2013 World Cup T20 final loss).

There is nothing wrong in making a comment on the lack of outputs of a player in concern, but there should be some patience shown towards a cricketer as they are humans, too. In the ongoing England-India Test series, the team management was under constant pressure to field the fifth bowler; when they did, there were calls for the inclusion of a specialist batsman. The same applies for selecting a spinner over a pacer and vice versa.

This ploy, surely, is the most easiest one used to ridicule a team in bad times. And, in most of the cases, the fans will be demanding the comeback of their favorite stars, either on form or fitness, who were dropped to make way for the now underperforming player.

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#2 Overseas problems

Of course, India do not have a spectacular record overseas, and the reputation is only taking a hit after the recent losses in England. After each and every match, there will be a set of people ready to tweet/update the count of India’s recent defeats and the year of the previous series win in the host nation.

This won’t be ending even after the squad returns home. Every time when India triumphs in a home series, a reminder of their unwanted away record will ring without fail. And whenever a batsmen struggles to time the ball well at home, there will be a cry of how he is going to fare on the next overseas tour. The pacers are the most likely to face the criticism, as they are less effective in slow, turning tracks and even might’ve been underused to some extent.

Adding to our batters’ weakness against seam and swing in overcast, alien conditions, there will be no shortage of comics and derogatory tweets over the form and skills after an away defeat.

And if it happens so that they lose wickets to foreign spinners, as in the case of Moeen Ali, that is taken as the ultimate humilation to needle the team.

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#3 Short pitch deliveries

There is a strong reputation that Indians are vulnerable to short pitch bowling. To be honest, nearly every team in the world is vulnerable in that regard.

Even though not many cricketers in the world are comfortable facing the rising deliveries at head height on bouncy wickets, as witnessed by England themselves in recent times – against Australia first and then during the ongoing series where Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron bounced them out, Indians are always the ones who are at the receiving end.

Subcontinental teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka have found it difficult to cope up with such stuffs, too. Overseas teams, on the other hand, don’t have much of a clue when it comes to spin bowling. However, it is pretty much ingrained, for reasons unknown, in our minds that pace is better than spin, and hence being weak against pace looks more of an issue than being weak against spinners.

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#4 IPL (fatigue factor)

Ever since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) gave birth to its million dollar child – the Indian Premier League (IPL), a tournament that is scheduled in the summer of every season inspite of a packed calender, some passionate followers are worried that it will result in affecting the fitness levels of the players.

It is also seen that some of the Indian regulars have aggrevated their niggles, as they are forced to play by their franchises owing to their contracts that pay them a lot more than national ones do. Every time you see an Indian pacer breaking down in an away tour, the nation eruptes pointing fingers at the two month-long tournament as the prime factor behind the injury.

Tiresome travelling, late night parties, betting and spot-fixing controversies only add fuel to the fire.

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#5 Corruption

The term ‘corruption’ is quite commonly used by people these days in the wake of the infamous 2013 IPL spot-fixing controversy. It has come to a level that now almost every underperformer is seen as a fixer. Everytime when a team comes back to win/compete from an unlikely situation, references of fixing start doing the rounds.

Even the pitch that was dished out at Trent Bridge during the first of the ongoing 5-match Test series was questioned as to how it could favour the visitors and whether the BCCI could have influenced it. It was there for all of us to see what happened from then onwards.

With cricket already being cited as the reason why other sports don’t get enough encouragement in the country, it has, undoubtedly, made fans of other sports use the few incidents to question the integrity of the board and the players. The low transparency of BCCI’s revenue details and profits only play it into their hands.

And some even claim the entire league is a staged tournament.

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