Batting issues in bowler friendly conditions.

[Straight Drive]

Team India has lost both test series played in SA and England. Looking deeper out of 8 tests played in South Africa and England Team India has won 2 out of 8 tests. The major reason for this loss imo is crap batting averages of our players on the 2018 tour of SA and England are represented below. The bowling has been the better performing department as compared to our batting department. Fielding has been horrible.

 

Only one specialist batsman has delivered the runs expected by specialist batsman. No surprises it is Virat Kohli who one expects to out perform most Indian batters more often than not.

 

Those marked in red are the flop as per the average expectations from the specialist batsmen. It is very disappointing to see that out of 9 players who are expected to average properly have failed to have a cumulative average of even over 30. Only Pujara has managed to put up a good show in England apart from obviously Virat Kohli. 

 

Murali Vijay has horrible average of 17 and 7 in SA and England series respectively.

Rahul has a horrible average of 8 in SA series. He did perform better in England but the average of 30 looks better only when compared to previous series. Okayish returns.

Dinesh Karthik averages 6 in England series. Batsman wicket- keeper averaging 6. 

 

Ashwin and Bhuvi have been excellent considering they are non specialist batsmen. Hardik Pandya too has done quite okay with averages of 20 and 23, which though not world beating, are acceptable considering him being an all-rounder.

When we look at just specialist batsmen , only Virat in two series has performed well and Chet in this series has managed to maintain a good average of 40. What we end up is only three good averages out of so many batsmen having batted in two series. At the end of the series, those are the only two batsmen who will be happy.

Looking forward:
Introspection needs to be done, because these are some horrible stats. Who is responsible for this mess. 

Just a thought passed by. I've been saying same set of batsmen will be like flat track bullies  in home. It is okay for Indian fans to be complacent, but the Indian team should not be complacent like a fan. Test cricket can throw surprises and shatter the big egos especially  those living in the world of denial.  

1. Virat needs to be accountable. The buck stops there. Virat has lot of powerin Indian cricket now and he got the team he wanted, he chopped, changed as and when he wanted, and even removed Anil Kumble and got the coach he wanted. So he cannot complain he did not have the players or the right coach (according to him). He selected the squad along with selectors and failed to give returns. As batasman he is one of the worlds best but he has flopped in his another major role of captaincy. 

Will changing captain help. No, don't even think of that. One may ask why so? What stops from changing? Deputy Ajinkya has declined in last few years. He is not even a certain starter in playing 11 and he is not having stellar series to cover up the below par series. Effectively, his place in squad has been under dispute. So how can he be made captain. 

How pleased Virat will be playing under any other captain is another point under consideration.

Does making someone else as captain will mean India will start winning overseas with same resources. Not imo. So why change. We are anyways gonna win at home. The selection blunders. Dropping Bhuvi after having taken 6 wickets and having scored 38 runs in SA test. Blunder. The constant chop and change in the team, another poor strategy. Change is important but not every test. No way a core team of players will be built. 

I would say we have to live with this problem. He is too big a name and removing him from captaincy will not help. So lets be happy with home series win and wins in away countries like SL, Bangladesh,WI an maybe UAE if we start playing neutral series versus Pak.

 

Virat Kohli said we were not outplayed. Perhaps outplayed means avoiding white wash. That 1 win has saved us from being outplayed. He also believes the fact that team showed fighting spirit, it is enough. 

 

2. Make Ravi accountable.  There are expectations to win series, not just fight and come back. Turned up in 2011, 2014 and 2018. Enough at international level to bat, bowl and field. Show us the results now that you have support of the most important person in Indian cricket. Don't tell us we are winning in India, SL, Bangladesh and WI. We all know no matter whoever is coach of India, we are expected to win there. Why do we need Mr. Ravi Shastri if we have to continue same trend of winning in some countries. Why to change coaches then. Rotation and rest required for caoches as well ? Then canceling the tour matches and going further even shortneing the number of days that they played in few warm-ups. Not saying that if we had played 5 warm ups we would ahve won in SA and England. I am talking about the probability here - the players could have adapted better. They would have averaged 5 runs more each than what they have managed. Not that 5 runs more by each player would have ensured an Indian win, but you never know those additional runs from every player can put pressure and help a team struggling to win get oiver the line. Even against mismatch county teams it would have helped batsmen. Know that bench bowlers of second county bowlers aren't going to bowl like Jimmy and Broad and Sam. Yet, they in middle of long spells will bowl few wicket taking deliveries. Better than net practice.

Ravi had an opinion that nets practice is better than match practice. Fair enough if he felt that as ultimately he is accountable and he should operate his own way. Take the free hand, but what have you done taking the free hand. 1-4, even by approaching the series the way you wanted. Not even winning with your own approach. So whom is he going to make accountable. He doesn't needs to as long as he has support of Virat and both of them have already said do not go by scoreline.

An Indian fans asks.....  2011 there were reasons for loss, 2014 another reasons, 2018 new reasons.. Is this going to stop anywhere. Do we have to go three series win less to win one. Let us know if this is the case. Imagine Ravi reads this. Ravi after reading this might as well go and ask Virat, hey Virat there is question i need to answer by a forum poster. Shall i tell him wait for 5 series to be on safer side. LOL.

 

Yes, teams are struggling when they tour in different countries. So should Team India. It's perfectly fine to follow the trend, is it. SA crumbled in SL, Aus crumbled in SL, so why can't India too lose in England. We cannot be different and go on to make a positive difference because others cant. Pathetic logic. Failure mentatlity. And the captain and coach is preparing the fans to accept the third failure. Ravi will say this is my first failure as coach in England. Okay, lets look at this series loss like the first one. Forget the past loses in England because Ravi wasn't the coach.

Coaches need to have a win mentality than accepting loses one after another and failing to understand repeated issues faced years after years. If he is convinced positive results are important then he will expect wins and do not sweep loses under carpet. Who....Lalchand Rajput, i would say. He is a certified coach. I doubt Ravi even has Level one certification. Rajput Sir has coached Indian team before at various levels. He is no-non sense type like Anil Kumble. That is a challenge though rather than getting a job as coach. Will he be same or will he be forced to be lenient is another question mark.Sandeep Patil too has coached at domestic and country level before. 

 

3. Those who are on 2nd and 3rd tour are flopping by scoring below par averages. Whereas others are failing because it's their first tour of a country. Next time some will fail because they will be on their decline phase of career. Excuses and more excuses. Be ready for new lessons.

Shikhar Dhawan said he is hurt the way Indian fans are reacting. Well, understand that it is fans who make you gods. Give them right to criticize. Don't get hurt by fans who are continously seeing India lose in England, three series in a row now. To not expect criticism after such performances is living in dream land.

Shikhar in Pataudi trophies:
Year and  batting average
2014 -20.33
2018 - 20.25

Shikhar in England:
Year and  batting average
2014 - 19
2018 - 16

 

Do we need to mention that how many drop catches he dropped. 

 

Does this kind of contribution from a senior player touring SA for second time and being one of most experienced Indian cricketer in this squad gives such performance does not deserve criticsm. yet he tweeted and needless to say got tremendous backlash from Indian fans. Ask it, get it. Did he even care to check why Indian fans are crticising. Look at the stats. It's not one test that we lost (3 Pataudi series in England in a row now), its not one catch you dropped (3 in one test in which i watched), its not one series in tough conditions that you have flopped pathetically ( 2 flops in SA and 2 flops in England). 

No need to worry, because we know we will win home series and you who have lost us away series will score tons of runs along with other flops of this tour. The same set of batsmen are goign to average over 50's. I bet. It's just that we are waiting for WI series where we will make them bowl 120 or even 170 overs at us in one innings. A lot more hundreds in lesser innings and probably the odd double as well. So make merry in October and fix your spot so that we can see you flop again in tougher series. Don't worry... we knew this last year itself and we also know that good times are very near so we will support you for scoring a ton soon. Raise the bat then and maybe a paper and do something like " Viv talk nah". That inevitable ton is going to put you in the class of Sehwag, Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, VVS. Remove your anger on fans when you complete the 100th run in next innings.

4. The replacements of FAB 4 or 5 is a concern. It was the bowling department that was our headache. It's viceversa now. The bowling is our strength and the battign is the headache. Only Virat is one player who will manage to end up with  career like previous batch averaging good runs. The rest are few year wonder boys. Consistency and peaks in performance will not be there to cover upthe awful series. The previous batch was better in those regards as well. 

The batsmen have to approach a test match innings like a test match innings. Determination, patience, shot selection, ability are the keys. Just saying that i want to be a successful test match batsman like previous FAB 4 won't make one. Similar or better excecution of skills is to be shown. Just do it.

 

How do India tackle the shortfall of players capable of playing swing and good bowling. Identify batsmen who have the temperament for long innings, the better shot selection ball after ball, the technique to survive the tough overs or bowlers at their best. Prepare them in domestic cricket. Maybe even keep them away from T20 cricket by compensating them so that they do not compromise test match skills by getting the T20 skills in test game. We need at least few players like this. Have 2 players who can play all formats because they have ability to adapt and are rare ones. Give importance to all aspects of developing them as all weather batsmen. Back them,
mentor them and debut them in international series. Do not select hacks. Do not ask someone like Chet Pujara to play aggressive brand of cricket in Test. You will end up with Shikhar Dhawan or Rohit Sharma. Stop the non-sense. Different formats will need differently skilled players. Not everyone is a complete package like Virat Kohli. he is one of the rare one. Do not fiddle unnecessarily wherever not required. 

 

Lots of the Indian dismissals that i watched in this series was bad to see. hardly any attempt at putting a price tag on their wicket.

 

All this will take time, because few years have been wasted in the soak, wash, rinse, clean, dry cycle. Need to start fresh in most cases now. It has been goofed up since the FAB 4 and Saurav started retiring gradually. Succession planning has flopped in spite of having loads of time that the past greats offered.

Accept the problems because saying there is no problem never leads to a remedial action. One does not even takes remedial action if he isn't convinced there is a problem. Start with this stage and take it forward. It is not going to be solved in one year because last many many years have been wasted. But better late than never.

 

Ravi is now happy. He has just read one more fan is now ready to wait for few more years. More fans have started believing in soak, wash, rinse, clean, dry cycle process. He dances to the tune of Duniya hila denge hum, hum duniya hila denge. 

Edited September 12, 2018 by Straight Drive

[zen]

We have to optimize the batting and bowling slots first .... And give breathing space to youngsters 

 

The constant failures by specialists is putting unnecessary presure on the youngsters 

[Turning_track]

13 minutes ago, Straight Drive said:

Team India has lost both test series played in SA and England. Looking deeper out of 8 tests played in South Africa and England Team India has won 2 out of 8 tests. The major reason for this loss imo is crap batting averages of our players on the 2018 tour of SA and England are represented below. The bowling has been the better performing department as compared to our batting department. Fielding has been horrible.

 

Where are the stats of my favorite, talunted Rohit Sharma? If I'm not wrong he too played same no. of tests as Bhuvi.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Turning_track

[Straight Drive]

4 minutes ago, zen said:

We have to optimize the batting and bowling slots first .... And give breathing space to youngsters 

 

The constant failures by specialists is putting unnecessary presure on the youngsters 

Something has to be done at Strategy level imo. Like i mentioned in OP, the identification and building core batting  unit who are fit for all weather batsmen is the key. Just fixing issues on as they come basis will not help. 

[zen]

1 minute ago, Straight Drive said:

Something has to be done at Strategy level imo. Like i mentioned in OP, the identification and building core batting  unit who are fit for all weather batsmen is the key. Just fixing issues on as they come basis will not help. 

We can identify the core players and play the best ones based on form and conditions 

[Straight Drive]

5 minutes ago, Turning_track said:

Where are the stats of my favorite, talunted Rohit Sharma? If I'm not wrong he too played same no. of tests as Bhuvi.

Updated in OP.

 

How bad that i missed such a great test match batsman. 

[Straight Drive]

2 minutes ago, zen said:

We can identify the core players and play the best ones based on form and conditions 

Good point. The pool of all weather batsmen who should be part of the core batting unit has to be larger, to cover the injuries, bad patch, rest or other reasons. 

[prasen82]

Identify top 5 batsmen 4 bowlers and wicketkeeper per series to start off with . The 11th person will always be a wild card .