We're just not mentally tough

[bharat297]

It's the bitter simple truth. If you look at players like Raina and Yuvraj, while they are both tremendous talents, they still have the same technical weaknesses that they did 4 or 5 years ago. Contrast that to someone like Michael Clarke who 2 years ago had this problem of his head falling too far to the off-side when playing straight, which was well exploited by England's swing bowlers. He worked tirelessly on fixing this flaw and now is arguably the best batsman in the game, probably along with Amla and Cook (who also get better and better every year). Indian batsmen or bowlers seem to all start off good and then there's just no improvement after some time. It's a long list: Irfan, Ishant, Rohit, Raina, RP Singh, Yuvraj, Munaf, Sreesanth, and many others who are all talented in different ways have failed to live up to their potential in international cricket. It's complacency and simply put a lack of mental toughness. Our young cricketers seem to think that mental toughness and aggression is about sticking your chest out and swearing at an opposition player. Nor is it about playing a couple of good innings' in a pressure situation. Mental toughness is a mentality that begins long before the match starts. Before Sachin faced Warne for the first time in India, he got spinners to bowl into the rough and he faced a countless number of hours preparing for Warne. That's an example of mental toughness! Being ready for battle by putting in the hours of meticulous preparation. This is something no coach can fix up. Ultimately, players need to take responsibility for their own careers. It's just arrogant to think they can work less than teams ahead of them and expect to get better than them.