Call to 'raise the alarm'

India’s 212-run loss to a rejuvenated England in the series-leveler at Mumbai has elicited a slew of criticism from the Indian press. While not entirely overwhelming, the response from media highlighted the obvious: that India have yet again failed to deliver in a telling Test match situation.

Many criticised Rahul Dravid’s decision to field first; some lamented the inclusion of five bowlers; others found India’s constant experimentation hard to digest; but most slammed the teams’ weakness to fight back under pressure.

Harsha Bhogle, in his column for the Indian Express, said that Rahul Dravid will remember his 100th Test for all the wrong reasons.

Geoff Boycott criticised India's decisions to play five specialist bowlers, adding, "Chappell is trying to make up for a lack of quality with quantity."

“Bombay ducks” read a headline from The Pioneer, calling India’s capitulation to “an England B team” among the most embarrassing in history. Another column in The Telegraph, a Kolkata-based daily, blamed Greg Chappell and the selectors for giving too much emphasis to the future, forgetting to address the current problem.

The Mumbai Mirror took it a step further, calling for India to “raise the alarms” on their Test frailties that began with a bad decision and ended in “30 minutes of mayhem”. A front-page picture of a discouraged Chappell and Dravid only highlighted the weakness of this Indian outfit, one that the column termed “looked as lost as an Eskimo in the Sahara”. Ayaz Memon of Daily News and Analysis, a Mumbai daily, said that India’s second whopping Test loss should alert Dravid and Chappell “about which of their theories and experimentations have been counterproductive, and the tortuous road ahead to redemption”.

Not spared in the response was Sachin Tendulkar, about whom several questions have been recently raised. Ignoring Tendulkar’s record in Test cricket over the last 16 years, certain sections of the media felt his time is over and that he has little to offer. Others opined that that he retire gracefully rather than face an unbecoming axe.

Amid all the criticism, though, there was praise for the Andrew Flintoff-inspired England team that overcame the odds to draw level. “It takes a lot to beat India in India,” Memon wrote while signing off, “it takes huge cricketing ability and, more importantly, nerves of steel.”