India rely on the kindness of others as WTC final dreams fade

Indian players during the third Test against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai on November 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Coaches and selectors who train themselves to spot ability in a young player are reluctant to acknowledge its decline as the same player ages.

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R. Ashwin are all fabulous performers, verging on the great even. But if the team to Australia were selected today based purely on current form, none of them would find a place in it.

‘Introspection’ is a key word in politics and sport in India, but there’s seldom any evidence of it following a major defeat. After losing two Tests and the series, India continued to display the kind of arrogance – pretending it was just a blip, resting their best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, for a Test they had to win – that has been their calling card in the series.

New Zealand needed fewer than 10 days to win 3-0. All will be forgiven, however, if India somehow qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. This will involve either beating Australia 4-0 in the series starting this month, or relying on the kindness of other teams to lose the appropriate number of matches. At the moment the odds are against India’s redemption. Perhaps that’s not the right word, for redemption suggests it was a sin losing to New Zealand.

The suggestion that this was a series that India lost rather than one which New Zealand won is unfair. The visitors were better prepared, and not so full of themselves. It was Kiwis doing Kiwi things while India did India things. The hosts didn’t take the guests seriously, and when, in desperation they turned to an old friend – the spinning track – they found shortcomings among their own batters.

The recurring, and humiliating collapses of India’s batting are at least partially the responsibility of the cricket board which showed a lack of spine by not insisting that the big boys play in the national championship. Ageing batters like Rohit and Kohli needed more red-ball games to get into nick, but the Indian system is in thrall to the big names, and tends to place them above the game itself.

Kohli missing a potential full toss from Mitchell Santner to be bowled in Pune was symbolic of India’s approach. There was a touch of desperation, and a sense of hopelessness. Likewise with Rohit’s ‘hit out or get out’ street cricket style play while chasing 147.

India go into the series in Australia without a single First Class match in preparation. And during the first Test in Perth, attention will be focused on television coverage of the IPL auction taking place in Saudi Arabia. Seldom could cause and effect have dovetailed so neatly in cricket.

If Rohit Sharma is tired of captaincy, it is understandable. He has accepted that “as a captain, I wasn’t at my best.” He is set to miss one, possibly two Tests in Australia for personal reasons. Bumrah will lead, but that cannot be the long-term plan if resting the fast bowlers periodically is part of India’s strategy.

The three stalwarts have had poor series in the past. But then age was on their side, and they recovered quickly. Kohli, the youngest of the three turned 36 on Tuesday. He is also the most competitive of the lot and has six hundreds and an average of 54 in Australia. Rohit averages 31 with a highest score of 63 there. Both average under 30 this year. The sense of an ending is palpable.

In life, there will inevitably be a last trip, a last win, a last celebration; as the novelist Annie Ernaux pointed out, “….but no sign by which to know them.” Athletes are lucky: they usually have signs by which to know the last goal, the last century, the last celebration.

The last time India lost three Tests in a row at home was in 1976-77, to England. On the tour of Australia that followed (admittedly against a team weakened by the defections to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket), India lost the first two Tests narrowly, but won the next two comfortably before losing the decider. Cricketers who know their history will be hoping that it does history things: repeat itself. And that other results favour them.