What India should do differently to win a test match away from home?
Team India’s dismal performances on foreign soil in the past 3 years have been creating ordeals for the team management. A lot of criticism has been going on for quite some time now, that the Indian Cricket Team has not been able to perform efficiently in test matches that are played away from home. And the criticism is absolutely justified, as the Indian Cricket Team has been failing to register an away test series victory for the past 3 years. With their last away test series victory being against West Indies in 2011 (a 1-0 victory in a 3 match series), the Indian Team has been playing like an underdog team after the world cup, and has failed to win even a single away test match since 2011. The humiliating losses of 4-0 against England (in England) and Australia (in Australia) have been the major concerns for Indian Team’s failure away from home.
The problem is not with a particular section of the team, be it fielding, batting or bowling. But, the whole team is responsible for displaying such disappointing results away from home. It is said that Test Cricket shows the true character of an International Team, as it tests the ability of a team to sustain an advantage for as long as 5 days consecutively. But Team India has been failing to do so recently, and it is high time that the team starts playing like the Number 1 team it used to be.
Team India needs to improve in every department in order to register a win away from home. Time and again, the foreign players have been giving an interview ahead of their series against India, stating that they would be targeting the Indian batsmen by bowling short, fast deliveries on their fast home pitches. But, the Indian Batsmen have been highly inconsistent in dealing with such short and fast deliveries. The level of uncertainty in the minds of Indian Batsmen is very high, which makes them play awkward shots when they don’t get a delivery on the length they were expecting. The batsmen have to be sure about the pitch conditions and the bowling attack of the opponent team.
When it comes to the bowling department, Team India has never been good in producing express fast bowlers. All they have are medium-pace bowlers with an ability to swing the ball. The lack of pace makes it easy for the opponent’s batsmen (who have been practicing with the fast bowlers of their team) to witness the swing die out after the initial overs, and then go on the attack. Even the quicks like Ishant Sharma have not been able to extract enough pace out of the foreign tracks, and this has been a major setback for the bowling department. The Indian spinners have been equally ineffective, which has often led MS Dhoni to go for part-time spinners, either to stop the fast scoring rate or to break a partnership. Ravichandran Ashwin has been more of a batsman recently, than a bowler. Ashwin failed to take a single test wicket on the tour of South Africa, and this imposed additional responsibility on the shoulders of Ravindra Jadeja. This is leading to an imbalance in the side, which eventually is the cause of all the losses. Be it pace bowlers or spinners, the Indian bowlers need to stick to the concept of line and length, in order to control the onslaught of the foreign batsmen.
The fielding of the Indian Team has been quite remarkable in the recent times, but some of the dropped catches in the 1st test match against New Zealand were not a good sight to watch. The Indian Team needs to perfect its fielding so as to minimize the runs leaked due to the mis-fielding.
With much more positive inputs from team management and the coach- Duncan Fletcher, Team India should be able to overcome the hurdles it has been facing on the away tours, and reclaim the number 1 spot on the ICC Test Rankings.
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