Kohli's Struggles with Success

It shows on the field, comes out every time Kohli scores a big one or passes a landmark, and even in unfortunate press conferences. Kohli’s actions seem like an endless attempt to prove to everyone that he belongs. As if there is an eternal struggle in his mind, where nobody believes in him, and he is constantly lashing out at the world for doing that. It is ironic, because what he sees in the world might just be his own reflection.

Everything that he does comes across as a slap to the world’s face - “Eat that you ****** non believers!”. The body language betrays anger when there should be elation. And as much it baffles Arun Lal, I have to admit, it makes me question Virat Kohli’s belief in himself. He handles each accomplishment like it is yet another thing that he has proven wrong. Chest thumping that seems to overshadow the sense of purpose does not paint the picture of a person who knows he belongs.

The planets have conspired to present Kohli with the most beautifully scripted opportunity to be a significant part of Indian Cricket for a long time. He doesn’t have the world to prove a point to, only himself. He most definitely has the talent, and has certainly started his journey in the right stride, but that is only one side of the equation. 

Until Kohli can score a hundred and know that it is the only reason he is here, and embrace success like it is born out of brilliance and not wrenched from the hands of mediocrity, there will always be a gap between Kohli ‘the newbie’, and Kohli the Champion.

What Does the Adelaide Test Mean?

Dead rubber? Playing for pride? A chance at redemption? A last hurrah?

What!?!

For Australia, it is a chance to become the second team in as many tours to reduce India into a bunch of touring amateurs reminiscent of the 90s. It is a chance to mercilessly hammer in the last nail and jump start their journey back to the top. A rare chance for youngsters and veterans to come together in splendid harmony, and attempt to perfect a recipe that India has gone horribly wrong at.

 For India, it could be a lot of different things. To say that they are playing to salvage some pride will be making the understatement of the year, but without Dhoni, and with the rest of the team in disarray, what does it really mean to India? To the players who deep down know that they might never show up for another test for their country, what is it to them? For players who have doubts and questions, about ability or their roles in the team - mid-career for some and start-of-career for others - what does Adelaide mean?

For fans who know that this is the last peek at the ship before it completely sinks to the depths of history books, what does Adelaide mean?

I've fought with these questions in the subway ride this morning. The NYC crowd rolling in joy about the Giants’ victory last night, oblivious to Indian Cricket and the agony. God I envy them! As a fan, I can only dig deep within looking for Hope, and all I find is Grief. That's it, plain, pure and shining 24-Karat Grief. I'm disgusted by the thought that the so called ‘Golden era of Indian Cricket’ is over before it started! Like it was all a media scam. Did it even happen!?! Will our greats hang up their boots to disappointing ends of their glorious careers? What does Adelaide mean to them?

It isn't well if it doesn't end well.

For me, the Adelaide test is simply something to look forward to, before the cathedrals of Cricket make way for rock concerts arenas, and the monstrosity of IPL devours everything that is pure and holy. Last year I hibernated through IPL basking in the glory of the World Cup victory. Watching highlights of the final, blissfully unaware of cries and moans of Cricket as IPL beat the **** out of it.

Life seems to be stuck on that same highlights clip loop, thanks to the fact that India has done little else to be proud of since that fateful six by Dhoni. What will help me through the hibernation this time around? The thought, along with Australian Open and a one month old baby, is what keeps me up at night. Be afraid, the voice in my head says, be very very afraid.

Sorry I digressed. Back to the test which promises to be most senseless and the most significant at the same time, we might see India capitulate hopelessly yet again, and guts that feel completely tapped out right now will find another level, find more pain in there. But my greatest worry is, what if we don’t? What if there is a historic fight back? Would seeing Sachin and VVS score hundreds really make a difference? Yes, it would provide a last shot in the arm, before Indian Cricket collapses into a terminal coma, but would it replace this emptiness, this cruel knowledge of the approaching end?

What does Adelaide mean to us?

Bumpy Road Ahead for Indian Cricket

As Indian Cricket goes through the ugly postmortems, analyses and general denunciation, at the center of it all is a feeling of bafflement. We all have inside of us a person who is simply bewildered. How quickly can a team go from the highest of the highs, to the lowest of the lows? How can these batting legends be made to look like tentative amateurs? How can one of the best Captains in the world look hapless and completely disinterested?

How can India be so bad!?!

Well, successive defeats and heartless oversees performances seem to be the least of India’s worries. Recent embarrassments oversees have sparked larger discussions, as they should, across the Cricketing world on what Indian Cricket is going through and what lies ahead for them. A summary of what I have heard and read: It’s going through **** and a whole lot of **** awaits in the future.

Dhoni getting banned in Adelaide might be a blessing in disguise. After 7 tough defeats on the trot, it might be a good thing for him to be able to sit out and give his body and mind a bit of a breather. Mentally, it might help in providing a vacuum before the shorter version of the game starts, which he certainly is more comfortable with. Dhoni’s captaincy is under the hammer and inviting much criticism from all over, perhaps for good reason. With him out of the action, media will move on to other prey. Lastly, it is a blessing because I fear the selectors may need to start looking for a replacement to captain the Indian test side at some point in the future. This would be a good time for a dress-rehearsal.

On the other hand, the criticism that Indian selectors are getting has a couple of sides to it. If one thinks about the long term vision of the board, the barb wire is somewhat justified. However, coming into the series reports about India coming in full-strength were almost omnipresent. Nowhere were the selectors damned for picking Sehwag, VVS, Sachin and Dravid! I guess that’s the thing with being 38 years old. When they hit centuries it is hailed as pure class, and when they don’t the criticism is 38 times more. Now, it suddenly is all wrong and the selectors’ fault!

Phasing seniors out is to be a board decision, but when you have men of this stature, boards can find themselves handicapped as well. It all goes unnoticed when times are good. Unfortunately that advantage has been mercilessly washed away.

From the big three, I personally feel that Laxman was approaching the end of his career, but still had a year or two of Test Cricket left in him. That the last two oversees tours are going to speed up the process and put extra pressure on him, is very sad. I don’t think that Laxman will be dropped for the last test to make way for Rohit Sharma. I am not saying that’s the right thing to do, just that it is how the Indian selectors tend to think. With Yuvraj out of the mix for the ODIs, Sharma is a certain pick for the remainder of the tour. Laxman has had a long illustrious career, especially good against the Australians. This is his last test on Australian soil, if not the last test, and at the end of the day, I think he will have earned a last chance at redemption. Sharma in the meanwhile will be left to get his exposure of the Australian soil in the limited version of the game, and wait to debut back home in the near future.

Dravid is most likely going to retire soon as well. And yes, at long last, I fear Sachin might be close to the end of the road as well. Although Ponting’s sudden resurgence provides some impetus for Sachin to continue for some time, but playing at home for two straight years isn’t going to give these veterans much hunger. Hundreds will be scored on flat decks, records created, and Tests will be won and drawn at home, but tours to England and Australia hold a different kind of value for these guys. They have and continue to live in a world where greatness is measured in oversees performances. We can’t imagine seeing these guys play in England, Australia or the World Cup at 41 years of age, and with recent horrendous memories oversees, it seems that a sad goodbye to Cricket is inevitable and close for our batting Gods. They have one final chance at Adelaide to collect a happy parting memory.

Will Australia remember them for a historic fight back, or as Greats that visited as champions once, but were reduced to lesser men on their last tour?

To end where I started, Dhoni provides another, and perhaps the most interesting piece of the conundrum. The man who has been one constant in good times and bad is Dhoni. Players get injured, go out of form or get caught in scandals, but Dhoni has been the cement that held it all together. It was a long time coming, but finally at WACA it hit me out of the blue. Dhoni looked like he had lost his mojo. Whether it is the lack of support from the other 10, or his own short comings as a Captain and a batsman, or the seemingly never ending downfall of Indian Cricket after the World Cup triumph, it is definitely taking its toll and starting to show. He has already talked about retirement decisions for 2015, and if one of the versions has to take the axe before that, we only need one guess to pick the winner.

Personally for me, what has been most disheartening is to see the apparent lack of interest in Dhoni the batsman. He has come out and has almost looked bored. Disinterested. Can’t wait for it to be over. If Dhoni decides to hang his test boots along with the big three, it will be highly interesting to see how Indian Cricket weathers the storm, and rekindle the hopes in Indian fans’ hearts that we might again someday triumph at Lords or the WACA.

For now, it’s effigy burning time back home, field days for the media, criticism storms all over, tough questions…..and at the heart of it all, utter bewilderment. 

Stiff test for Dhoni the Captain, stiffer test for Dhoni the person

If one ever wondered where Test Cricket got its name, one only has to follow India’s tour in Australia. This beautiful version of the game tests the ability of the players to the truest level. Being in your element for an hour or a few lucky hits can’t win you games here, a player has to find the strength to sustain through the ebb and flow of focus and have the supreme skill and patience to slowly grind the opposition. Apart from the skill though, Test Cricket also tests the character like no other format can. Such are the tests and crossroads that MS Dhoni finds himself and his team in. It is not just a test for Dhoni the Captain, but also for Dhoni the person.

Two issues come to mind when we think of Dhoni in Australia. First and foremost is that he has painfully proved that he is a limited-overs Captain. Second, and what remains to be seen, is whether or not Dhoni can have it in him to accept, learn and take corrective measures. Yes, he has got an issue to address, but would he have the fortitude and attitude to accept it and adapt?

His shortcomings in the longer format as a Captain are embedded within the nature of the game itself. In limited overs, A, the field set is pretty much imposed these days with power plays, so aggression is not a choice but imposed, and B, saving boundaries tends to become the primary focus of the Captain. For a team like India where batsmen come to the party more often than not (on flat pitches, that is), Dhoni can back his team to win most games when the asking rate is 6 or thereabouts. Test Cricket doesn’t allow Captains the luxury to hang back, because batsmen are not playing for quick runs but for building partnerships. Dhoni is a T20 Captain who has grown to Tests and not the other way around. Hanging back and waiting for batsmen to make mistakes can win you limited overs games, but more often than not, this strategy takes Test matches away from you.

Why this is a huge test for Dhoni the Captain is because in places like Australia, England and South Africa, India’s batsmen cannot compensate like they do in India. And so, one sees performances that completely defy everything about Indian Cricket: its high rankings, Demigod batsmen and the general chest-thumping of its fans and commentators.

Furthermore, Test Cricket promises you drama on multiple levels. Apart from the Captaincy, this juncture of Dhoni’s career is also the stiffest test of Dhoni the person. Dhoni’s accomplishments as a Captain have come thick and fast, to an extent that it would take a long time to find another Captain in recent times that can measure up to his statistics. Thanks to the IPL wins, Champions League crowns, T-20 world championship, #1 Test ranking and even the 50 over World Cup win, Dhoni is on a pedestal like we haven’t known before. Commentators, fans, experts and almost everyone else has put him there.

When you spend a long time up there, it has got to start feeling like home. The true test of the person behind this captain will be having the ability to step down and take corrective measures. Yes, to attack with bowling is something he has to get used to, since he has spent bulk of his career captaining a side with severely depleted bowling resources. On tough oversees tours, it’s not just the ability to learn but also the speed with which it is accomplished that can decide the result. It is key to accept that there is something to be learnt though.

Does accomplishing a lot without failure robs the ability to take criticism? R Ashwin with 5 test matches, and Rohit Sharma with a grand total of 0 test matches; it is embarrassing that they are the ones sent out to face the press after an abysmal day of Cricket. The times when Dhoni did decide to come out, barely ever were the questionable decisions discussed, or the issue addressed.

India has gone from the highest of the highs, to the lowest of the lows in a blink of an eye. Dhoni the Captain, and more importantly, Dhoni the person needs to turn things around. On the field and off it.

Taking the issue by the horns is the call of the hour. Hiding behind amateurs and having a deep point is not going to cut it anymore. 

Shattered pieces of a Golden Mirror

Seriously, have we ever heard, or seen, or read about, or bloody imagined a greater anti-climax than the one served up by our savior, Sehwag?

Messiah. Revenge taker. English Beater. Baba Sehwag Dev. The Man!

The hype generated, especially by the Indian media, already had Sehwag scoring a triple hundred in each inning at Edgbaston.

Well, he missed by just a little bit.

Each test shows the surreal progression. The English have gotten better and better, and Indians have scaled depths of equal proportions. 196 in the first test, over 300 in the second, and now marching handsomely-all-trumpets-blowing towards an innings defeat, as an Indian fan, I shudder at the thought of the defeat margin in the fourth test.

Cook’s brilliant double, and Sehwag’s King Pair has perfectly embodied this tour for India. The visitors have gone into each game hoping for a fortune-changing performance that would rouse the sleeping lion.

However, Tests require eleven performances to come together in a perfect Cricket-symphony; they are not won or lost by one sparkling hurrah.

I had hoped that the stark difference between a 100 meter sprinter and a marathoner would dawn upon us after we bid farewell to our last gunslinger-test players. That it would come while they are still around is both a shame and a leveler, in perfectly balanced glory.

Great tests have always come about when two equal-ish teams created epic battles. Sometimes though, one team has to carry the baton and create dominant brilliance that overshadows everything.

So far, it seems, India made the trip for nothing. They could have played these matches from the comfort of their living rooms back home.

It was great while it lasted…..but friends, it is time,

We are not number one. They are.

Period.

Fading memories of Trent Bridge

The outrageousness of India’s defeat at Trent Bridge was actually predicted by Mirza Ghalib when he wrote “Dard ka hadh se guzar jaana hai dawa hona”. For the Urdu challenged, Ghalib was referring to the second test at Trent Bridge in India's current tour to England, when he wrote “pain can only increase to a certain point, beyond which you don’t feel it anymore”. Such was the brutality and ruthlessness of the English attack that the Indian Cricket Team disintegrated in perfect resonance, with the inflicted pain increasing a bit at a time till Sachin was given LBW, and then we were all comfortably numb.

England did everything right. If the victory at Lord’s was near-perfect, the Trent Bridge rout was one scripted by the Cricketing Gods. Slight hiccups were simply opportunities for new heroes to seize moments and continue the carnage, with the bat or the ball, at the top or at the tail. If Cook and Swann seemed to lose their incredible forms, others rediscovered theirs and more than made for all Brit shortcomings. Broad was a marginal selection at the beginning of the series. What a joke that looks like in hindsight! We would have to go back a long long way to find another Test player that could match his current purple patch. Bat, Ball or words, he is playing with them all with mind numbing brilliance.

Bresnan, another outside selection, couldn’t do anything wrong either. Kevin Pietersen, yet another out-of-form man has found his knick in the nick of time to deflate India. Bell, Trott, Anderson, Tremlett are all names in a long list of fine performances from England. The Cricket has indeed been near flawless from the hosts. They have truly and fully outplayed India in all departments and have registered two thumping victories to ensure that they will not lose this series. Glorious memories of 2007 can find another home; they were mercilessly washed away today.

What’s more, it wasn’t cheeky Cricket at any stage. It was bold and handsome, going for the jugular. Victory was never sneaked in by going after the tail while giving easy singles on the other end. England dismissed Sachin in the second innings, and Dravid in the first, before ripping through the tail like a knife through warm soufflé. India didn’t have a lone fighter stranded on one end as it so often happens.

Like the Cricket from England, my fellow fans, India’s defeat was just brilliant in its completeness.

It is also symbolic and morbidly ironic that India’s number one test ranking is being washed away in this fashion. One could argue that this is the last golden legion of Test Cricketers to have represented India. The only way we will see VVS, Sachin or Dravid back at the 2015 tour of England would be as commentators, spectators, umpires or all of the above. One wonders, once these greats hang up their boots and take up alternate professions, who will step up and be the next great Test Cricketer from India? Would any of our new crop go on to become a legend of such stature? Would this seemingly last league of extraordinary gentlemen take with them the last golden era of Indian Test Cricket?

Oh well! No matter how deep these gashes are, and how excruciating the pain may be, we have to cherish these dying moments of India’s reign at the top. We have to cherish these last batting stands by the likes of Sachin, Dravid and VVS. Each boundary, each forward defense, even the well judged ‘leaves’ are like last breaths. We have to live them to the fullest while they last.

Until the next jagging delivery by Anderson, or the precisely shaping outswinger from Broad, takes our breaths away….

A Caribbean Vacation

Ahoy Cricket, How’ve you been mate?

If flipping between the SL-England test and Ind-WI ODI gives me enough time to write this, there is something seriously wrong with today’s Cricket-planetary positions.

After wallowing in the hitherto-unknown bliss for over two months, and basking in the make-believe serenity that should follow after a World Cup victory, I feel I am ready to write again. I should admit though that writing about Cricket was a bit of a challenge. Like an old fountain pen that needs a violent jerk before it gets going again. I didn’t give up easily though, I was surely, miserably and flat-out defeated…..

After relentless attempts to follow IPL ardently, I am indifferent to report, that I have failed as comprehensibly as such failures can be. It didn’t take long for me to realize that a mortal human being can only follow a monstrosity of a tournament like IPL if it was being done for a living, in exchange of exorbitant amounts of money. And since neither of these applies to me, largely due to the painful reality of having a full time job to do unfortunate non-Crickety things, I figured that IPL will most certainly have to pass me by.

So, while I waited for the IPL tornado to pass, I started planning life beyond the Cricket World Cup. And all that soul searching also made me reflect back on simpler times when fans looked forward to Cricket. Back in the 90s when the human race hadn’t evolved enough to embrace Cricket twice a day, we waited and waited, sometimes for months, to see our boys in mild-tentative-blue back on the field. Now, things are quite different. Today, we don’t wait for Cricket, as our boys in bold-blue-and-other-shocking-color-combinations are playing about 500 days a year, as Cricket is fire-hosed down our throats sending us into a cathartic coma. Today we need to weed through and look forward to Cricket that fits our interests, from a big <expletive> basket of Cricket that is on offer.

For me it means waiting for tours like the ones to the Caribbean and England, watching Sri Lanka play test matches at the Lords, and shamelessly shutting myself out of Twenty20 extravaganzas.

Well then, after my longish rant, here is a look at our Caribbean vacation.

A quick look back

The first Indian triumph in the Caribbean went on to become more of an aberration than a fresh start for the sub continent teams. It was the magical year of 1971, when Sunil Gavaskar made his Test debut in the second test against WI in Port of Spain. Gavaskar wasted no time in announcing himself to the world by scoring 65 in the first inning, and an unbeaten 67 in the second to guide India to its ever victory in West Indies. The year 1971 continued its glory for India when immediately after the Caribbean tour, much like it is scheduled this year, India toured England and registered its first ever victory on English soil.

After that series victory in 1971, where India won one test match and drew the other two, it took India 35 years to register another series victory in the Caribbean. In the meanwhile, we toured West Indies 5 times, in 1975, 1982, 1988, 1996 and 2001, only managing to win two test matches and lost every single series.

Look no further

Considering the Test history in the Caribbean, India has fared relatively better in the ODIs. Though they have certainly dominated in the recent years, as India’s stock ascended into the Stratosphere and the West Indians invented new ways to implode every season. With Lara continuing to be the last good thing to have happened to Caribbean Cricket, this series, at the very least, provides yet another opportunity for the Windies to stir up the good ol’ Cricketing Love at home.

Things may have gotten a bit easier (or lamer depending on how you look at it) when India announced its squad for the tour. Some of our players need physical rehab, some need breaks and the remaining need surgeries.

The blatant truth of T20 Club Cricket being more important than International Cricket tours now looms on us like the mark of Death Eaters over Hogwarts. But that cynical story is for another gloomy blog, bottom line for now is that India comes to Caribbean with an outrageously depleted team for the limited-overs leg of the tour. Combine that with the largely-amateur WI performances and a gaping Chris Gayle hole, and what you have is really a not-so-promising limited overs Cricketing action.

Test Cricket that follows the five ODIs provides a glimmer of hope for watching some of our own greats back in action.  

Although depleted, India will look to press its dominance in their first international appearance after the mind numbing stupor of the WC victory. Apart from a number of fresh players, it will also be testing grounds for the new coaching staff.

Being the undisputed Champion means beating everyone, everywhere. Winning the cup shouldn't be a conclusion, and the Indians would want to prove it to be the beginning of a lasting reign at the top.

Would the Caribbean tour offer enough quality to keep the audience engaged, or would we have to wait until we travel further north to English soil?

Extras:

§         WI remains a country where Sachin has not scored an ODI century, and with him missing the ODIs, it may well go into the history books that way.

§         At 13.41%, India has the lowest Test Match winning performance against WI. This rate falls to 9.5% winning performance against WI in WI.

§         Gavaskar has a comprehensive record in WI, scoring 7 centuries and 4 half centuries in 13 tests, at an average of 70.20. This record created at the time when WI produced its most successful and dreaded fast bowlers.

§         The only other contemporary batsman who comes close to Gavaskar is Dravid, with 2 centuries and 10 half centuries in 14 tests, at an average of 70.00

§         With 25 and 15 wickets in 5 tests respectively, Harbhajan and Zaheer are the only current Indian bowlers to have a respectable record in WI. Others either have less to no experience, or have fared poorly.