4 reasons why the current Indian team is repeatedly failing in major overseas Test series

Enter captionIndia once aga
India once again lost an overseas Test series

‘Not again’ was the reaction of Indian cricket team fans at the end of the fourth Test against England. They came very close in both of their Test series against England and South Africa.

"The conditions will be testing, but like I have said before, this one and half years will define this Indian cricket team and the whole team is aware of that" - Ravi Shastri, the Coach of the Indian cricket team, before the start of the South Africa tour

‘So near, yet so far’ is the case of this current Indian Test team. They had the World’s no.1 Test batsman, variation in their bowling attack, few Test only specialists and a rising all-rounder in their tank. Nevertheless, they once again stumbled in their mission to conquer the world.

Let us look at four reasons behind their failures in the recent Test series against England and South Africa.


#4 Inability to seize the momentum

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Sam Curran was awarded the 'Man-of-the-Match' in the first Test

Barring the second Test against England at Lord’s, India fought toe-to-toe with the hosts in the rest of the matches. They had their moments and stayed on the top for the majority of the sessions. They had one foot in their opponent’s throat. Instead of going for the kill, they somehow strangely lost their hold and gave their opponents a slim chance of a comeback. Sam Curran’s knock in the first and fourth games are perfect examples.

Even in South Africa, they had their fair share of moments. However, they failed to crush their opponents and seize the momentum completely. Had India handled those moments correctly, then the outcome of these series would have been entirely different.

#3 Batsmen not complementing their bowlers

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Indian bowlers were exceptional in both of the Test series against England and South Africa

If you throw the question of ‘how to win away Test matches regularly’ to any cricket expert or a player, then all those people will give you the same answer - ‘Take 20 wickets in a Test match’.

In their last nine overseas Tests, Indian bowlers had bowled-out their oppositions in eight of those games. The Lord’s Test against England is the only exception. Among those eight games, barring the third Tests against both England & South Africa, the batters failed miserably.

They were unable to complement their bowler’s efforts. Poor shot selections, lack of temperament and poor technique against quality seam & swing bowling are the significant reasons behind batsmen failures.

#2 Inadequate practice matches

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The four-day practice match between India and Essex was reduced to three days

When a team travels overseas for a Test series, adapting to the alien conditions is their first challenge. Especially when the hosts are tough to beat in their home conditions, it is necessary for the visiting team to adapt to those conditions as early as possible.

However, the Indian team had other ideas. In South Africa, they did not play a single practice match. Realizing their mistake at the end of SA tour, a single four-day practice match was scheduled before the Test series against England. However, even that single match was reduced to three days after the request of the visitors.

Unless and until the Indian team understands the importance of practice games, a Test series victory against the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia) countries will remain as a distant dream.

#1 Poor team selection

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Pujara scored a magnificent century in the fourth Test against England

In the first two Tests against South Africa, Ajinkya Rahane, the vice-captain, was dropped in favor of the in-form Rohit Sharma. When Rahane returned for the third Test, he showed his worth with a fine knock of 48 runs in the second innings. In the second Test, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped for strange reasons.

In the first Test against England, Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped. However, he showed his class as soon as he returned to the squad. Shikhar Dhawan never got a continuous run in the Test matches.

Barring Virat Kohli, no other player’s position in the playing XI is guaranteed. In fact, Kohli had not played with the same playing XI in his first 38 Test matches as captain.

This constant chopping and changing can affect a player mentally. When the position in the playing XI is not guaranteed, the players are under heavy pressure to perform well and retain their places in the forthcoming games.

When a player knows that his place in the team is safe for a few games or a particular series, then the player can play freely without any external barriers.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava