We got a very surprising gift on India 68th Independence day from Sri Lankan spinners. Our on paper strong team of the richest board in the world cricket lost to a side which is going into a transition and struggling.The fact India was dominating the Test for three days , hurts more . The attacking trio of Chandimala , Thiramane and Mumbarak gave the Lankans a respectable score to fight .
With the thought we Indians would get to enjoy a victory by the end of the day to celebrate , we were shell shocked to see Indian batting collapsing in heaps in front of Herath and Kaushala. The conditions in Sri Lanka are slow , low bounce and turning but as professionals and the good ranking team has it had to be cake walk to win this Test at Galle.
The reasons for this loss can be:
1. Too much playing of IPL , T20, ODI formats.: These three formats has given the batsmen to play shots which are risk driven and at times orthodox.
2. Pitches : Pitches which are being used for these formats are flat to be able to have high scoring games. Thus Indians who are champions in this format are flummoxed when they are against swinging and spinning tracks .
3.Technique: Its history, Indians were always susceptible to pace bowling on fast pitches and that thing was always hard to work on. But in the three short formats with pitches made flat and dead, to have high scoring fares , it was solved with players like Rohit Sharma scoring twice double centuries and are dud in Test cricket. But our strength where our players are best to spin attack are losing the plot as seen even Moeen Ali, Monty Panesar and Lyon can get through our line up easily.
The technique to defend on turning slow pitches has gone out. With batsman completely going into shell , give the bowlers to dominate and create pressure on the batsmen. Nobody even tried to neutralize the spin by stepping out of crease and whacking out of ground.
5. The big Indian stars Sachin, Dravid ,Laxman and Ganguly were both technically sound and aggressive when required. They had clear strategy in place with how to pace the innings and counterattack as wast the case Tendulkar - Warne duel.
6. Experience v/s Novice: The Indian team now has generally players which has come up from the IPL T20 format.Gone are the days when players used to come by playing a grueling competitive season of Ranji domestic season or stint in English county season. These would give them ample practice to practice against quality pace, spin and competitive cricket.
( Images from cricbuzz.com )
With the thought we Indians would get to enjoy a victory by the end of the day to celebrate , we were shell shocked to see Indian batting collapsing in heaps in front of Herath and Kaushala. The conditions in Sri Lanka are slow , low bounce and turning but as professionals and the good ranking team has it had to be cake walk to win this Test at Galle.
The reasons for this loss can be:
1. Too much playing of IPL , T20, ODI formats.: These three formats has given the batsmen to play shots which are risk driven and at times orthodox.
2. Pitches : Pitches which are being used for these formats are flat to be able to have high scoring games. Thus Indians who are champions in this format are flummoxed when they are against swinging and spinning tracks .
3.Technique: Its history, Indians were always susceptible to pace bowling on fast pitches and that thing was always hard to work on. But in the three short formats with pitches made flat and dead, to have high scoring fares , it was solved with players like Rohit Sharma scoring twice double centuries and are dud in Test cricket. But our strength where our players are best to spin attack are losing the plot as seen even Moeen Ali, Monty Panesar and Lyon can get through our line up easily.
The technique to defend on turning slow pitches has gone out. With batsman completely going into shell , give the bowlers to dominate and create pressure on the batsmen. Nobody even tried to neutralize the spin by stepping out of crease and whacking out of ground.
5. The big Indian stars Sachin, Dravid ,Laxman and Ganguly were both technically sound and aggressive when required. They had clear strategy in place with how to pace the innings and counterattack as wast the case Tendulkar - Warne duel.
6. Experience v/s Novice: The Indian team now has generally players which has come up from the IPL T20 format.Gone are the days when players used to come by playing a grueling competitive season of Ranji domestic season or stint in English county season. These would give them ample practice to practice against quality pace, spin and competitive cricket.
( Images from cricbuzz.com )
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