West Indies arrive in India soon and play three Tests before taking them on in the ODIs. Then, the second vital series of the year for India, commences with their departure for down under.
India Cannot Afford To Give Australia An Inch On Tour
With the all-important tour of Australia less than a couple of months away, India needs to start planning for it from now.
In the first against England, India were painfully complacent and by the time they realised they were in the middle of the battle, they had lost the war.
England took no prisoners and the Indians came home bruised – literally – with the scars of the 4-0 defeat only placated slightly after the home ODI series whitewash against the same opposition.
Another Test series defeat in Australia could undo that road to recovery.
For whatever they are worth, India’s third in the ICC rankings may not be under immediate threat from Australia’s one rank lower – given the difference in the rating points. But a second successive huge loss could definitely dent the Indian spectator interest even further.
And it is at an all-time low the country has ever seen.
BCCI was probably playing with fire when they allowed that behemoth by the name of club T20 cricket to grow to unmanageable proportions. Expecting them to have a far-sight enough to predict the shambles most stadiums found the attendances to be in the ODIs was far-fetched, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
If not worried, the board would have had a few creased brows by the time England and India took field for the previous T20I.
Fan interest can be fanned back by cutting down on the amount of cricket, but if that is as probable as finding empty Mumbai local trains, then the only other solution is for the Indian team to perform exceptionally on the field of play.
Sample this, the board’s tour planning committee in their infinite wisdom, have chronicled the West Indies ODIs after the Test matches.
Reverse the order and you have your Test match players in a better groove when the final game ends, a fortnight before the start of the Boxing Day Test match.
As the itinerary currently stands, India will end up with a mindset totally different from one required to succeed in the five-day format in alien conditions leading up to their first warm-up game.
The BCCI coerced their Australia counterparts into adding an extra tour game before the start of the Test series. All that has transpired since is the culling down of a four-day game into two matches of three days and two days respectively; hardly a prescription for success in a land where they have never before won a Test series.
A December 11-finish to the home Tests – which is when the ODIs against West Indies will now end – and on a hard, bouncy Mohali track would have allowed the side to acclimatize much better, in their lead-up to the first warm-up game on December 15.
Admittedly, the aforementioned strategy did not work on their tour of England. India had finished playing a Test series in the West Indies and yet, had come cropper against a better-prepared English side.
Of course there is no set formula for success when up against an opponent of such pedigree as England is – and as Australia will be – and in their own den. But speak of not giving the opponent an inch, and it is not only restricted to on the field of play but also in the preparations leading up to the series.
In the end, it is a collection of the very small factors like these that could go on to make a difference to the final result.
Another poor show in Australia could test the resolve of the staunchest of Indian supporters.
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