- Individuals with an elementary knowledge of cricket in India, all the Indians are cricket experts in their own rights – by the way, would have noticed the Board of Control for Cricket selectors in India made a mistake in selecting the team for the West Indies tour. We have seen how Team India has underperformed in recent years when competing in International Cricket Council events. Failure to cross the final hurdle has defined Team India, highlighting the lack of a much-needed push to emerge victorious when it matters the most. It’s worth noting that champion teams never pass up an opportunity to annihilate their opponents. Going for the jugular rather than meekly surrendering should be the norm for any champion team. However, Team India has a history of deception.
PC: PTI
- Over the last few years, the Indian cricket team has performed admirably in bilateral series. Successive victories in Australia while on tour should be remembered as notable achievements in Indian cricket history. Similarly, no visiting teams have been successful in defeating us at home. Such is our dominance in domestic circumstances. However, two consecutive World Test Championship finals losses to New Zealand and now Australia should be cause for concern. Add to that Team India’s failure to win an ICC event in a multilateral competition, and the BCCI authorities should be concerned. Of course, whenever the team performs poorly and fails to win, some chopping and changing is in order.
- The swords were naturally out to dissect the failure as soon as the Australian team defeated Team India in the WTC finals. The selectors have resorted to chopping on expected lines now that the Indian team has been announced for a two-Test series in the West Indies. However, the decision to drop long-serving workhorse Cheteshwar Pujara from the Indian team for the upcoming Test series appears to be a knee-jerk reaction. Keen cricket fans will have noticed that none of the top-order batsmen have been firing in recent years, particularly on overseas tours. Captain Rohit Sharma has frequently failed to deceive. He has consistently failed to turn promising beginnings into something substantial.
PC: Avinash Sharma
- Similarly, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli, the batting mainstay, have failed to score big runs during the period. In fact, Virat Kohli has gone through several tests without scoring a century, which is unusual for the run machine. Ajinkya Rahane, on the other hand, was recruited for the test team primarily because of his IPL exploits. His two innings in the recently concluded World Test Championship against Australia, on the other hand, must have served him well. He has now been named vice-captain for the West Indies series. No wonder the legendary Sunil Gavaskar questioned the selectors’ wisdom in dropping Chesteshwar Pujara but sticking with some of the big guns despite poor performances. Certain questions have yet to be answered.
