India have failed to prioritise Test cricket
Looking back at India's defeat at Trent Bridge, James Lawton in the Independent writes that while England came into the series hard and belligerent, India came to England under false pretences.Thrashed at Lord's, overwhelmed again at Trent
Akhila Ranganna
25-Feb-2013
Looking back at India's defeat at Trent Bridge, James Lawton in the Independent writes that while England came into the series hard and belligerent, India came to England under false pretences.Thrashed at Lord's, overwhelmed again at Trent Bridge, the Indians have failed to earn even this most slighting of tributes.
With Sehwag and Khan injured, and the great triumvirate of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman contemplating the end of magnificent careers, what have the Indians shown us? They have produced skeletal performances. Their captain, MS Dhoni, a giant of the World Cup, has been lost at the batting crease and at times his wicketkeeping has been embarrassingly rank.
The seam bowlers have been dogged but rarely inspired, and if the conditions have not helped spin, Harbhajan Singh has scarcely been recognisable. Yesterday the slow bowling of Suresh Raina was pitiful enough to make you avert your eyes, especially when Stuart Broad heaved successive deliveries into the crowd.
Though the series was billed as a world heavyweight contest, it has been so one-sided that everybody has been short-changed writes Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph. India’s board have failed to prioritise Test cricket since the Indian Premier League was launched; they have failed to prioritise this series in particular.
For the Indians to play in the West Indies one week and a Test at Lord’s the next week is an error for which the administrators concerned should be held accountable.
England look like the No. 1 side in the world and India do not - they look flat, they look jaded and there is no energy in the field - writes Jonathan Agnew on BBC Sport.
For a tired and ill-prepared team with a listless captain at the helm, the world No. 1 tag seems at the moment to be too heavy a responsibility to shoulder, writes Sandeep Dwivedi in the Indian Express.
Since their tour game at Taunton some 20 days back, India have looked a jaded, ill-prepared, disjointed side with most players showing no stomach or will for a fight. The listlessness and lethargy of skipper M S Dhoni during his team’s long wicketless phases has been a talking point through the series.
If England become No. 1, they must develop the attitude to dominate writes Kevin Mitchell in the Guardian. While they are almost certainly about to replace India at the summit of Test cricket, staying there will be a challenge they have not faced since the ICC introduced the rankings eight years ago.
This England team can achieve anything now, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent. So complete is their control of this Test series that prospects of a whitewash are looming into view.
Two weeks ago that notion would have seemed risible. India had been the No. 1 side in the world for almost two years, they had a vaunted batting order, a venerated captain and a calm sense of their own worth. Their bowling was less potent but it had prospered against decent opponents.
As of last night, most of that hardly mattered. England have outplayed India in each of the first two Tests, exhibiting skill, intelligence and resilience
Writing in the Daily Mail Nasser Hussain says that the current England side is the best England team he has ever seen.
In the same newspaper, Lawrence Booth writes that when Dhoni padded up to his first ball, leaving Tim Bresnan on a hat-trick and India 55 for six, the gap between the tourists’ aspirations and harsh reality felt almost too big to be true.
In Mid-Day Clayton Murzello writes that to think that India won't lose another Test in this four-Test battle sounds very improbable. India have to get real if they want to deny England from running away with Test cricket's top spot: After day two at Trent Bridge, they couldn't bat, bowl and field.
What India have lacked most on the tour of England, according to Kepler Wessels, is courage. Some of the India players may be among the highest-paid players in the world, he writes on Supersport.com, but money doesn't buy good old-fashioned guts.
In the Cricketer, Dileep Premachandran blames India's poor planning for their defeats in the first two Tests, which he believes is their most comprehensive hammering since 1999.
Akhila Ranganna is assistant editor (Audio) at ESPNcricinfo