BCCI should also focus on on-field battles

Following India's fourth consecutive overseas defeat, Harsha Bhogle writes in the Indian Express if the India players actually believe if they can win Tests abroad. He also says after winning the off-field battles, the BCCI should win some battles on the field too, and find out why India have been losing.

If you look at the away scorecards of matches between 2002-07, which was a good phase, some things become apparent. For a start, the batsmen made a lot of runs; it was the coming together of an extraordinary quintet of batsmen. With Dhawan, Pujara, Kohli and Rahane, maybe that phase can return though it is best not to live with such expectation. In seven Tests in Australia and Pakistan in 2003-04, India had scores of 409, 523, 366, 705, 211-2, 675 and 600! India won three out of those seven Tests but lost two and again the scorecards tell a story. While there were sporadic individual bursts, Agarkar at Adelaide, Pathan and Balaji in Pakistan, India's bowling wasn't scaring anyone. The opposition in those Tests made 323, 284-3, 556, 558, 474, 376-6, 407 and 489. What India seem to have done well was to capitalise on opportunities created which, in the years ahead, came from shooting stars like Sreesanth, RP Singh, and from Zaheer Khan.