England vs India 2018: Is the Indian team under a cloud?

The last 13 days of the ongoing Test series have seen the No. 1 ranked Indian team look ridiculously mediocre. Not surprisingly, this has given a fillip to opinions, suggestions and speculations on the composition of the team all around.

So what has gone wrong?

The Indian team of 1974, of which Farokh Engineer was a member, was bowled out for a mere 42 runs in the second innings. He, however, feels that the latest performance was even more mortifying than the one 44 years before.

Talking to the Times of India, Engineer said, "It’s a basic; you don’t play across the line against the swinging ball."

This Indian contingent consists largely of the same players that have proved to be good enough to help the team to top the world cricket rankings. In the last series against South Africa, these very players had faced equally potent conditions if not worse. Moreover, that is the only series that India has lost since the 2014-15 tour of Australia.

Murali Vijay: missed the line

Ever since the itinerary for the England tour was finalized, every Tom, Dick and Harry has been debating whether the Indians will be able to perform the same in England. And in India, Mahesh, Vinay and Raj were not to be outdone.

Will the batsmen be able to counter the swing that the Dukes cherry affords the English bowlers? Will the Indian bowlers get an equal amount of swing? Will the spinners get the same purchase they do in India?

The ICC ranking system didn't crown the Indian team just because the teams of other Test teams were not doing well enough. The team were actually performing very well. So it follows then that the blame for their current predicament lies solely with the Indian team.

It is certainly not just about the technical ability of the players. If that was the case, they would not have been able to scale the heights that they have.

It is also well-known that in the English summer it gets cloudy quite often. So that can't have come as a surprise to India's batsmen.

Ashwin bags a wicket in the first test

The problem lies in the mental approach to the game. The Indian batsmen in the top order are all attacking by nature; all of them have a strike rate of 50 and above in Tests.

It is, of course, expected that players at this level have to adjust their game as the situation demands. But grafting for runs for an extended period of time goes against the natural instinct of these players. That is what is happening with the Indian batsmen right now.

The solution lies in relaxing a bit, playing your natural game and watching the ball out of the hand of the bowler.

The Indian bowlers have bowled quite well in both the Test matches so far. That England scored rather freely in the second innings at Lord’s is to be expected of a Test side once in four innings, and is not an indictment of Kohli's bowlers.

The Indian seamers may not have got as much out of the pitch as the English bowlers did. But then there were no clouds for the Indian bowlers during England's first innings at Lord's.

Kohli plays a cover drive in the first test

That the English summer is cloudy has been known since long. Ajinkya Rahane scored a century at Lord’s on just the last tour of England. Kohli and his men know what it takes to succeed in such conditions; all they need now is the right application.

The Indian batsmen will do well to fall back on their natural game and rely more on their instinct rather than go to bat with a predetermined mindset. Kohli has been outstanding so far, he is a special talent, but one player does not a team make!