5 things that can help Virat Kohli turn around Team India's fortunes overseas

#2 Improved team selection

Every great side from the West Indian teams of the late 70s to early 80s, Aussie sides led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting and even the Indian sides led by Ganguly, Dravid and Dhoni had a core set of players. It was a core blessed with good old principles of good technique, ability to bat/bowl long, good temperament, good first-class record, and with the basic premise that a good player will play well in all conditions.

Unfortunately, under Kohli, none of these age-old principles has been considered. Players with IPL and ODI experience have been picked. Players are picked on the basis of additional skills rather than core primary skill, without much importance to first-class record. Players are picked for two games and then dropped, to be picked again. It only leaves you with 11 vulnerable men. Hence, we see good players going down instead of rising up.

The current state of Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Umesh Yadav are classic cases of this round robin selection. It is better to drop players, so that, they can work on their shortcomings in first-class cricket and come back stronger, but when they are in the team, they need to be given a long run, irrespective of the results, conditions and performances.