Are India turning into a soft team overseas?
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India have a lot to ponder about after the Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.
It’s not just the losses, but the way they have been outplayed by the opposition, that will be a major source of concern for Dhoni and Fletcher.
To add to this, India have now lost six consecutive times in as many games away since the tour of England and in each case, it has been a one-sided result, with five of the six finishing in four days.
Indian cricket has taken a lot of pride in overseas performance since the start of the new century but the fear I have after watching this team in the last one year that we have taken a huge step backwards again. India were always a very strong team at home, almost unbeatable, and the major challenge in the 2000 era was to change the performance overseas.
India did manage to do that with the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble, Laxman, Sehwag, Zaheer, Harbhajan over a long period of time but the question is, that at the fag end of the careers of this huge names, are India again turning into a soft team overseas?
There is still time to come to such a conclusion on that but I must say it is running out fast for this team and they quickly need to find a way out to get the monkey of the back.
Having watched the team closely in all the Tests away from home, I must say that there are surely a few areas that are the reason for the slip. But for me, the biggest reason is the combined failure of the bowling and batting units at the same time and at crucial junctures.
Test matches turn on such important moments and I can see a whole lot of times when India have slipped up considerably. Take for instance the second Test in England in Nottingham when England were 120/8 on Day 1 and managed to get 225 and a sniff at the Indians.
India could never get back into the game and finished off beaten four-nil there. They were in a similar position in Melbourne with Australia on 217/7 and then the lower order put on partnerships to get to a lead of 334.
India also tumbled from 214/3 to get knocked over for 280 and again get into a position where they had to fight from behind. Winning cricket matches is about seizing the moment and that has not happened.
Also the major reason for not holding on to the moments has been the batting.
The Indian batting has been rated very highly for the last 10 years now but somewhere in the last few matches they have found themselves in difficult positions. They also conceded a hundred-run lead to the West Indies in the first Test in Delhi but got out of jail because of a poor performance from the visitors.
India’s problem also has been the new ball every time they have batted in Test matches abroad. None of the openers have gone on to make hundreds to take the shine off the new ball to allow the middle order to breathe easy.
Also, at the time of the second new ball opponent teams have run through the middle and the lower order easily and this is where I feel that India are being soft.
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