Opinion: What's it with India and the Opposition's tail?

For a while now, the Indian Cricket team and its fans around the globe have endlessly watched opposition tails wagging and frustrating them. While it was Keemo Paul and Co. from the Windies, it was Philander and Co. from South Africa that frustrated the Indian bowling unit. Sam Curran and England's tall tail tormented the Indian bowling unit which probably deterred India from winning the series in England.

Now in Australia, Pat Cummins and Nathon Lyon have been a thorn in India's flesh as they play better cricket than the main-stream Australian batsmen.

So what is it with the India bowling unit and the opposition tailenders: Here's a look at the foremost reasons.

#1 Tail-enders these days are more capable with the bat

Of the Indian bowlers beyond Jadeja and Ashwin, Ishant is considered the most capable with the bat. And that in itself is an indicator of how bad the Indian tail is with a bat in their hand. However, that is not the case with most other cricketing teams around.

The likes of Vernon Philander, Sam Curran, Stuart Broad, Jason Holder, and Pat Cummins could easily be termed all-rounders while the others including Steyn, Rabada, Lyon, Starc or even Keemo Paul are more than capable of nudging the ball around.

#2 Lack of Plan B or Plan C for the Indian bowling unit

Indian bowlers seem to go back and hit the traditional length-length-yorker/bouncer route as soon as they are into the tail. The tailenders are more shrewd these days as they figure the strategy very soon. While bowling yorkers is one strategy, India should look to add a few more strategies like bowling slow yorkers, short-pitch deliveries, outside the off-stump to test the tailenders perseverance.

India's failure to have alternate strategies for the tailenders have affected their performances in overseas conditions.

#3 Drop in the intensity of Indian bowlers

It has continued to baffle experts around the world that the attacking mindset and the intensity at which the Indians bowl to the proper batsmen start to subside once the lower-order arrives.

Once the tail-enders manage to stick in for a while, the bowlers lose their focus, which in turn naturally affecting the morale of the team helping oppositions to make a comeback.

It's imperative that the bowlers don't get carried away and stick to the same strategy and intensity that they had bowled to the top and the middle order batsmen. Instead of waiting for the tail-enders to make that inevitable error, the mindset should be to induce a mistake from them.