5 reasons why teams are failing to win overseas Test series

Over the last decade in international cricket, the biggest adversity for the touring teams is to consistently win in overseas conditions. We have witnessed some exciting Test matches in the recent past, but the series has always gone in favour of the home team. There have been some spectacular performances with batsmen from the touring party scoring big daddy hundreds and bowlers bowling memorable spells in alien conditions. Apart from the individual brilliance of a few guys, teams, in general, have failed to capitalize the key moments and sustain the momentum for the length of the entire series.

Let us look into some of the parameters which are constantly hindering teams to taste overseas Test success.

Scheduling of Test Matches

With the advent of the cash-rich T20 leagues, cricket boards have become more bullish to give these leagues more space which eventually crams the International calendar. Nowadays, we hardly get to see an ODI bilateral series which has any context. This eats up a chunk in the itinerary and teams are left with no option, but to play back-to-back Test matches. This results in a failure to acclimatize to the conditions, as there is very less time to play a practice match or two. In addition to this, there is a major issue of burnout and players getting injured on a regular basis.

We have had many such examples like Australia's recent tour of India in 2017, which also involved Australia playing a T20 series against Sri Lanka, 4 days before the start of the first Test match in Pune. Similarly, England playing 7 Test matches in the sub-continent against India and Bangladesh in about 8 weeks in the winter of 2016. This intrigues the followers to really understand the logic behind scheduling Test matches.

The other major factor has been the scheduling of Test matches during off seasons. This leads to an abandonment of practice with teams having no choice, but to compromise by practising in the indoor facilities. If ICC doesn't pay attention towards proper and logical scheduling, the excitement around a marquee series will dilute in the future. There will be no player versus player contests as the risk of players getting injured will be on the increase. This will eventually affect the TRP hungry broadcasters and fans alike.

Batsmen with poor technique

Poor

technique has become a perennial issue for

team

in foreign conditions

Nowadays, batsmen are used to playing on placid wickets, which has no lateral movement or turn off the surface. This results in them scoring a plethora of runs, but their batting techniques still remain flawed. Once they are put under the acid test of swing & seam, pace & bounce and turn & bounce, they get brutally exposed.

As Ian Chappel, once famously wrote in one of his columns, Test matches are not really a platform to hone your batting skills. A batsman who graduates from First class cricket to Test cricket should have the aptitude of handling different conditions. Even though inexperience and lack of local knowledge can be a factor, there is no excuse for a batsman who fishes at deliveries outside off-stump or plays inside the line of the ball. Similarly getting beaten on the inside edge will playing spin, bringing LBW into play shows equal amount of ineptitude.

Whether it is the non-sub-continent teams struggle in Asian conditions or the Asian teams going to SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries and put on a trial of swing, seam, pace and bounce, we have seen it all. But batsmen like Virat Kohli and Steve Smith in the modern era have been successful in all conditions, because of adaptability and a great understanding about their own games.

A batsman with a good technique is someone who has the right fundamentals and awareness about his game. If batsmen go through the grind in First class cricket against quality bowlers on lively pitches, they'll end up up-skilling themselves which will help them and their team when they set out on an expedition to conquer international climes.

Lack of quality practice

Tour Games helps the touring teams to understand the conditions better

There was a time in 80's and 90's where preparations would start a month or two before the main series was actually played. Touring teams would reach early and start playing First-class matches with quality sides. This would help them in getting acclimatized with the local weather, food and understand the key indicators which would give them success during the Test series. As the First-class matches would be competent in nature, the touring team had the luxury to test its bench strength and give both the batsmen and bowlers game time in the middle. This would also help the teams to build some momentum before the series.

When Pakistan won successive Test series in 1992 and 1996 in England. They played 12 county matches and won the County Championship by winning 9 of them and becoming the second team after "Bradman's Invincibles" who won 15 out of their 20 county games in 1948. We all remember Sachin Tendulkar's onslaught towards Shane Warne in 1997/98, where he scored a stroke-filled 204 of 192 balls in Mumbai's Brabourne stadium and Australia got hammered by a strong Mumbai side in 3 days. It gave them enough food for thought as they got to bowl to the best batsman in the opposition.

In recent memory, we remember India going to England and winning the Test series in 2007. Zaheer Khan, who was the tormentor in that series played a season of county cricket with Worcester in England. When England won the 2012 series in India, they went and practised in Dubai where Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar strategised the pace and the lengths required to succeed in India. This was one of the rarest occasions where Indians were beaten in their own game and MS Dhoni's reliance on turners backfired.

Teams nowadays are content in having match simulations and high-intensity net sessions, which may be helpful but it won't give them enough game time and hinders them from lack of quality practice.

Team Combination

Team Combination is a vital component of Overseas success

Team balance makes a vital component in any sport. An assessment of a team's strengths which includes different skills, combinations, teams character and experience is a fair indicator of a team's capabilities in alien conditions. The West Indies of the 70's and 80's and the Australians if the late 90's and 2000's thrived in all conditions because of a settled team with a core group of 7-8 match winners who never failed to deliver.

How can one stake a claim that we have an ideal team combination on paper?

It is usually accepted to go with 6 batsmen, a wicketkeeper followed by 4 bowlers. But the team that is able to unearth either a batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder is the team that has a higher chance to succeed. We remember the South African teams of 1990's where they had batsmen who could bowl and bowlers who could bat. Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Hansie Cronje and Lance Klusener had to quality to battle it out in all conditions.

West Indies of the old followed a slightly different path. They built their team around 6 world class batsmen followed by 4 fearsome bowlers who would intimidate the opposition in all conditions. Australians had 4 wicket taking bowlers followed by a plethora of batting match-winners in their side.

The current Indian team is arguably the only team which has a group of promising fast bowlers, world-class spinners, an emerging all-rounder and batsmen who can dominate. They are led by a captain who's extremely aggressive and likes to take the bull by its horns. They are next to invincible in their home conditions, But still, they have not been able to solve the jigsaw puzzle of team combination to replicate the overseas success of a West Indies or an Australia.

The Toss

England v India 2018: Toss did play a role in this series

A lot has been debated about this matter in recent times. Cricket experts have voiced out their opinions of the pros and the cons involved in banning the toss. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) went one step ahead in the county championship by scrapping the age-old tradition of flipping the coin from the year 2016. Although this decision has been met with criticism from a large section of the cricketing fraternity, it definitely gives all of us a food for thought.

In recent times, a lot of attention has been given to the playing surfaces. A home captain prefers to exercise his strengths by asking the curators to prepare a strip which favours the home team. Once the toss is won by the home captain, he prefers to bat first and its one-way traffic which peters out literally to a "no contest" scenario. This does not provide a good advertisement to Test cricket.

After having beaten South Africa in 2015-16 on rank turners, India prepared against fair surfaces against England and Australia in 2016-17 barring the exception of Pune. India lost 4 out of 5 tosses against England and still won the series 4-0. Against Australia, India lost 3 out of the 4 tosses and still won the series 2-1. India's win was definitely commendable as they played on fair surfaces and the touring teams had the decision making authority during the toss.

In India's recent overseas tours to South Africa and England, the pitches were bordering between being lively and green. India lost 7 out 8 tosses and won a match each against England and South Africa. The interesting aspect is India won both the matches where they batted first and lost 6 matches where they batted last. The results would have been different had India won a few crucial tosses in Cape Town, Ageas Bowl and Lords.

Teams follow a common pattern which is to win the toss, bat first and make the touring team bat last on a wearing pitch. If the toss can be scrapped, it provides a level playing field to the touring team as the home captain and the curators have to be wary, that preparing surfaces to drive the home advantage can severely backfire.