There’s a problem in India’s cricketing culture. Border-Gavaskar series loss exposes it

There have been many instances of Australian and English players leaving the IPL midway to prepare for upcoming bilateral Test series. But there is no such culture in Indian cricket.

Virat Kohli walks off after losing a wicket. | Esa Alexander | Reuters

The Border–Gavaskar Trophy returned to Australia after a gap of a decade. India’s 1-3 series loss was a fair result because Australia raised its playing standards in every match of the series after conceding the first Test to India. 

In contrast, India’s performance was adversely impacted by certain flaws in its cricketing culture. The major flaw became visible in the way the series went for its two ageing stars—Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Captain Rohit decided to miss the first Test of the series due to personal reasons. In his absence, KL Rahul opened the innings and did a wonderful job at the start of the series. 

Rohit’s return meant that KL Rahul had to switch his batting position throughout the series. This impacted his performance because regular movement in the batting order adversely impacts the rhythm of a player. Because Rohit was a late entrant to the series and KL Rahul had filled the vacuum at the top of the order in an admirable manner, it was appropriate for the Indian think tank to shift Rohit to the middle order. But a mistake was made in the fourth Test when Rohit was moved to the opening slot. He was woefully out of form and showed no signs of doing better than KL Rahul at the top of the order. 

Rohit failed at the top of the order and this unsettled KL Rahul to the extent that he was no longer the same player from the time he was shifted in the batting order. This happened due to a flaw in India’s cricketing culture where reputation is often given more importance than form. 

The same flaw was exposed in the case of Virat Kohli too. Kohli has got a long rope from the selectors. In recent years, his form has been poor. In the recently concluded BGT series, Kohli’s batting has been shocking, to say the least. His repeated flirting outside the off stump has been so predictable that at times, the Aussies did not even celebrate the fall of his wicket. Yet, these two senior players—Rohit and Kohli—have immunity that even career diplomats would dream of. The problem with India’s cricketing culture is that established players end up becoming superstars with a cult following. The Indian system allows them to become larger than life and even the selectors forget that there is a fundamental concept of dropping out-of-form players. 

A bizarre trend 

There is no doubt that Kohli has given great service to Indian cricket across all formats and is a truly great player. Rohit Sharma, too, has been a great white-ball player. We must acknowledge their contribution, but not at the cost of giving them endless immunity over bad form. It can be argued that perhaps both of these veterans deserved to be dropped even before the BGT series. Sadly, in Indian cricket, the power and aura of some players are much higher than the powers of the selectors. 

This has led to a rather bizarre trend in Indian cricket that players can pick their time for retirement. This makes a mockery of the national selectors. Players need to be retained in a team purely on the basis of their form. Kohli’s performance has been below par in Test matches for a long time now. Yet, he retains his place in the team due to his reputation, which too has diminished in recent years. 

Let us also make an honest assessment of the bowling reserves of India at display during the BGT series. The truth is that India had a one-man bowling attack in the form of Jasprit Bumrah. It was Bumrah alone who kept India in the series with his extraordinary bowling. No other pacer showed any kind of consistent penetration to have an impact on the game. The mental and physical workload on Bumrah was extraordinarily high. This reflects poorly on our fast bowling reserves. Australia had a replacement for an injured Josh Hazlewood in the form of Scott Boland who was outstanding in the series. India did not have enough arsenal in its bowling lineup to reduce Bumrah’s workload.  

India’s bowling reserves during the series suggest that India’s bench strength is poor when it comes to pace bowling. The potency of our pace bowling attack was limited to Bumrah. 

Test over IPL

The Indian players landed in Australia in batches rather than as a team. It’s a clear indication that some of the players are pampered by the cricketing administration of India. There is also the case of players getting optional practice sessions and immunity from participating in domestic cricket even when they are woefully out of form. These are signs of a flaw in India’s cricketing culture. 

The timing of the World Test Championship final is such that it is held immediately after the end of the Indian Premier League. This means that India has never had enough time to prepare well for the WTC finals. Maybe the BCCI needs to revisit the cricketing calendar and be more focused on preparing for important bilateral Test series. 

There have been many instances of Australian and English players leaving the IPL midway to prepare for the upcoming bilateral Test series. But there is no such culture in Indian cricket. It has been reported that senior players here often reject domestic cricket and the cricketing administration of India looks the other way. There are very few instances of Indian cricketers opting out of the IPL. 

Indian cricket’s next major assignment is going to be the Test series in England. Hopefully, some of the flaws in India’s cricketing culture will be fixed well in time. 

Kush Singh @singhkb is founder, The Cricket Curry Tour Company. Views are personal.

(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)