All said and done, we are just not good enough

[chewy]

Yep, despite all the politics, dropped catches, selection cock-ups etc, India were never good enough to face three 140kph fast bowlers on these type of wickets or snuff out De Villiers cheaply (despite coming back from long absence), more of mental problem than ability. 

 

This time India had decent bowling unit but still lacked that Morkel or Rabada type bowler

[CoverDrive]

Even Australia and England said in Indian series that if they had taken X and Y chances they would have won. Those chances are part of the game but the margin of victory was big in each game. The batting was just too poor to win anything. They did not even have to go to their plan B and won inspite of some hurdles (Steyn injury and flatter pitch)

 

Atleast previous generation players (Sachin, Laxman, Dravid) did show fight in some of the matches. This bunch except Kohli did not even show any potential

[raki05]

8 hours ago, mancalledsting said:

Geebz. I truly believe if our fielding was better and we played KL and Rahane from the start....we MAY have scraped these two tests in our favour. Despite that, it doesn't mask the fact that our batting for the most part is woefully out of depth. 

This . In addition to above i dont understand the irony of expeimentas well.  ODIs where experiment was required we have already sealed the playing 11 for wc and kept playing ttfs on the name of experience by overlooking recent performances. Where as for one of the most difficult overseas test tour inspite of having settled lineup we tried experimenting during entire tour. And i bet for all the 6 odis in SA we ll have a settled midle order of kedar, dk bose and Cool inspite of having non stop Phanity.

[bhakum20]

some of the shots to get out were just awful. I bet I could've done better than that with my non-existent technique.

 

Batting - as expected - 2/10

 

Bowling was probably a 7/10, bit better than I had expected.

[rkt.india]

52 minutes ago, CoverDrive said:

Even Australia and England said in Indian series that if they had taken X and Y chances they would have won. Those chances are part of the game but the margin of victory was big in each game. The batting was just too poor to win anything. They did not even have to go to their plan B and won inspite of some hurdles (Steyn injury and flatter pitch)

 

Atleast previous generation players (Sachin, Laxman, Dravid) did show fight in some of the matches. This bunch except Kohli did not even show any potential

the same bunch did far better last time. If you remember the bunch of SRT, Dravid, Ganugly shot out 66 and 100 in 1996. So, You cant say that they didn't not show potential.  even in that only SRT  had multiple centuries in SA.  Drvaid had 1, pujara has 1, laxman and Ganguly none. Sehwag had 1 on his debut. Rahane reached close to 100 last time. Pandya this time and this is probably the best SA bowling attack in last 20 years. There is no Andre Nel, Langveldt or Tsosobe to give you relief here. They are just relentless.  No freebies.

 

Regarding chances, yes, those chances are what decide the winners and losers. The team that takes them wins.

[rkt.india]

39 minutes ago, Prince_ said:

Wrong. The gulf in quality between the two sides isn't as much as op is trying to portray here. This southafrican team is weaker than it seems on paper and they were there for the taking for India but sadly India couldn't do so due the arrogance of their captain. India haven't played a single practice match and they r expecting to beat south africa in south africa? R u kidding me?  

 

 

 

Besides this, How on earth do u expect to win a test against a team like SA in their own backyard after dropping 3-4 catches per Match. 

This SA bowling attack is the best last 20 years they had.

[CoverDrive]

1 hour ago, rkt.india said:

This SA bowling attack is the best last 20 years they had.

I agree as you say there is no relief bowler which we were very smart to use after Morkel and Steyn in the earlier tour. Just the accuracy of Philander brings so much more to the attack. 

 

Here is hoping we get better here. 

[rkt.india]

13 minutes ago, CoverDrive said:

I agree as you say there is no relief bowler which we were very smart to use after Morkel and Steyn in the earlier tour. Just the accuracy of Philander brings so much more to the attack. 

 

Here is hoping we get better here. 

not just philander. Philander was there last time too and he was handled very well. This time our batsmen did not look focused enough to tackle him. They had these three last time too but the addition of Rabada proved decisive factor. Steyn out and comes in Ngidi who did the same  job.

[Temujin Khaghan]

huge difference in fielding quality

 

[adi B]

My only comment on this thread is an old cliche - catches win matches!!

[adi B]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

This SA bowling attack is the best last 20 years they had.

They are damn good but stop overrating them like that,plenty of their wkts were due to incompetentecy of our batsmen  .watch how the aussies will score off them and win the series 

[goose]

a lot of things go wrong on away tours. that's a given. it's how you deal with that failure and and still find a way to perform when the dice land in your favour. instead our guys were deer in headlights, be it shot selection, catches run-outs. they need a shrink. 

[rkt.india]

13 minutes ago, adi B said:

They are damn good but stop overrating them like that,plenty of their wkts were due to incompetentecy of our batsmen  .watch how the aussies will score off them and win the series 

you cannot compare Aussie and Indian batsmen. Playing fast bowling is their bread and butter. They will certainly play them better than us.

[Laaloo]

Nah sorry can't agree with that. We had incompetent selections, incompetent catching, piss poor running, piss poor batting with piss poor shots and we dropped our best bowler for a TTD. We are good enough if we select the right team and play to our potential.

[Khota]

The problem was consitently the opening. If openers score 50 we are good to go. I think Dhawan and rahane opening gives us the best shot. Vijay was vastly overrated.

[nevada]

Not good enough to win a series but good enough to win a game. Going there a little early, hiring local bowling+batting consultants, and not making asinine selections would have given us a chance. 

[Yoda-esque]

Yes, we are just not good enough, but there are several reasons for this abject performance. 
 
You can't go into a tough overseas series without any preparation. Yes, we could have still performed poorly if we went to SA several weeks before, had match practice, etc., but the odds wouldn't be stacked against us as much it did just landing in SA days before the first test and practicing only at the nets. You want to put yourself in the best position to succeed and the BCCI aussholes neither realize that nor do they care. I do not even know if the team leadership relayed the need for match preparation to BCCI. Instead we played meaningless ODI series at home against SL. Again, due to the schedule, Kohli scheduled his marriage and all the parties days before the trip which could not have helped him focus personally and as a team.
 
Team leadership is horrible. Questionable captaincy decisions and Shastri is nothing but a yes man. Look at how he interviewed when Kumble got the job, via Skype from Bangkok. It shows that he has a sense of entitlement about it and got pissed when he did not get the job.
 
Indian batsman lack the technique to survive in alien conditions. They are very comfortable in favorable conditions, but do not have the ability to adapt. This is attributed to lack of discipline, lack of mental toughness, the will to win, hard work, sense of entitlement and getting complacent easily. They also have a tendency to crumble under pressure. This team needs a team psychologist as much as it needs coach and physical trainer. Haven't we seen this over and over again (ever since I have been watching cricket)? Cricketers change over the years, but these traits remain. Why? Look at what they did with Kumble? His tough approach to coaching made people uncomfortable. I knew this team was doomed when they replaced him for a Yes / party man.
 
Because of this, Indians are always good on paper, but when the chips are down they never deliver, especially away. Add to that the fact that we have never had 1 or 2 spearhead fast bowlers who can significantly influence the game. Add to this the horrible organizational performance of BCCI, nepotism, favoring profits over performance, etc. etc. We may have talents coming up in the domestic scene, but I guarantee you it will not result in overseas win performances because of some of the reasons I mentioned above. India will always play and do well at home, but they will continue to fail abroad in alien conditions. There may be a win or two here and there, but they simply cannot win consistently to considered a ATG team. 
 
Kohli is doing fine with his individual performances, but his arrogance his coming in the way of introspection, and from questioning his own decision making. How is he going to improve then? Idiot Shastri will just say yes to everything and the rest of the team will get disillusioned when they cannot lean on good leadership. Mental state of mind is as important as technique in achieving success in sports.
 
Look at India with sports in general. What are we good at? Almost nothing. We suck at soccer, or hockey (although hockey is improving) hardly win any medals in Olympics and given the amount of infrastructure and popularity of cricket in India, we are not very good unless we are playing at home.
 
Nothing is going to change in the short term. We will lose this test series 0-3, probably lose the ODI series as well. Then in England and Australia tours we will repeat the same mistakes (lack of preparation) and get whacked again. In the meantime, there will be IPL tamasha and once we start playing at home, all will be forgotten and these cricketers will think they are on top of the world.
 

Great post

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[Laaloo]

Yep just not good enough