OH MY! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE INDIAN TEST TEAM? WHY IS IT FAILING REPEATEDLY TO COMPETE?

• There’s a popular saying and belief in the cricketing parlance that transition occurs after a few of the established and stalwart performers retire, which is the most difficult period for the team to not only rebuild but also stay relevant to compete on expected lines. However, the present Head Coach of the Indian cricket team, Gautam Gambhir, does not like the word ‘transition’ much and has expressed this in no uncertain terms on more than one occasion. He prefers to move on with the next assignment nonchalantly, but the dynamics of team sports like cricket are not as easy as they appear to be from a distance. It’s not too difficult to comprehend that finding a replacement for the big shoes is a complex process that requires patience and guile in no small measure.

PC: SportsCafe.in

• Paradoxically speaking, Team India’s Test team has had a mixed bag of results while playing in the familiar home conditions as well as touring overseas. However, the biggest concern must be the way Team India is capitulating at familiar home conditions while the visiting teams are rolling over us with such ease, finesse, and panache. Our spin-friendly surfaces used to be such a tough place to execute skills for the visitors that they used to dread playing here. And our batters brought up on a steady diet of playing in the low and slow pitches, used to score heavily, not only allowed our bowlers the liberty of going for the opposition batters’ jugular but also successfully piling on the pressure to roll them over quite comfortably. The narrative has changed in the last year or so.

PC: PC: India Today

• Of late, the consummate ease with which the visiting teams are riding roughshod over Team India is unbelievable. Last year, New Zealanders whitewashed us 3-0 in ridiculously easy ways. This year, the South Africans won the two-Test match series 2-0 without really breaking into a sweat. Yes, filling in the shoes of monumental achievers like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin is no mean task. But the chosen potential cricketers as replacements must be given a decent enough run time to not only acclimatize to the demanding international Test cricket but also to understand the challenging nuances associated with producing remarkable returns on a more consistent basis. Team India is faltering on this front quite spectacularly.

PC: Deccan Herald

• Head Coach Gautam Gambhir appears to be thinking differently, far away from the tried and tested ways and means of Test cricket. The constant changing and chopping of players, especially at the top of the order – say no. 3 position, relying too much on all-rounders rather than specialist batters or bowlers has been the noticeable bane of the present Head Coach. Top-notch performances in slam-bang variety T20 IPL should not be the criterion for selecting a cricketer to showcase skills on the classical format of the game. A true cricketer’s worth is always mirrored in Tests where the battle between the bat and the ball is evenly contested. The BCCI and the team management should go back to the boardroom to course-correct the fortunes of the team immediately.