India's batsmen have got to tough it out
India have a lot to ponder after the Test losses in Melbourne and Sydney - most pertinently whether the team has once again gone soft when playing overseas, writes Sourav Ganguly in the Sydney Morning Herald .
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
India have a lot to ponder after the Test losses in Melbourne and Sydney - most pertinently whether the team has once again gone soft when playing overseas, writes Sourav Ganguly in the Sydney Morning Herald.
One problem for India is that their hosts have become smarter at preparing pitches to suit their bowlers more than the Indians. Just as they expect turning pitches in India, there is a conscious effort from opponents to leave grass on wickets. They know it's an ageing batting line-up and that new players are finding their feet in the international arena and hence will find it hard in the conditions. This has been a clever ploy and the Indians will have to find a way to tackle that.
In his column for the Courier Mail, Michael Clarke says: “There is intense speculation about whether we will play four fast bowlers in Perth on what is expected to be a pace-friendly pitch. The answer is, I don't know. Until we look at the pitch today it's impossible to get an accurate gauge of how it might play. Certainly there would need to be exceptional circumstances for me not to play our spinner Nathan Lyon.”
You don't want to take in four fast bowlers and find out late in the Test your attack is crying out for variation, particularly if you're bowling last. Pitches don't need to turn for spinners to make an impact. Offspinners have been successful in Perth before, drifting the ball away from the right hander into the breeze. The Fremantle Doctor can blow quite strongly coming up from the south-west and you need bowlers who can use it rather than fight it.
In the Hindu, S Ram Mahesh writes: "While there is merit in the argument that India needs a batting transition, this isn't the time. Transitions are planned activities, not patch-up jobs in reaction. With a series and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to be saved, Laxman must be allowed to be himself. As he showed here at the WACA in 2008 and several times before and since, Laxman does what very few in the history of cricket have — win matches off his own bat. He has earned the right to control his future; knowing the man, it's a privilege he won't abuse."
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what role the coach Duncan Fletcher has played in India’s horror run, writes Karthik Krishnaswamy in the Indian Express.
With the results hurtling downhill, the long-term question, of who, who and who after Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman, has assumed an even more feverish tone. Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina have regressed, Virat Kohli sits on a precipice. If Fletcher, hired for his razor-sharp technical eye, made any positive difference in their Test match techniques and temperaments, it hasn’t made an impact on the scoreboard. This perhaps is one failure Fletcher can be judged on.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo