What ill-prepared and frustrated managers do - on a cricket field, and other things

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The abject surrender by the numero uno Test team's famed batting line-up - not once but twice at Newlands, Cape Town in the first Test of the ongoing series - is not unexpected.

The Indian team landed in South Africa without any preparation at all. Only a few days back they were playing Sri Lanka at home and decimating them. But even against one of the weakest teams today, the Indian batting line-up struggled in the Kolkata Test due to seaming conditions. In fact, India surrendered to Lakmal and co. at Dharamshala in the first ODI. In 2016, India had lost to Sri Lanka in a T20I at Pune on a grassy 'English' pitch. So against the weakest team if we had demonstrated again and again that our world-record beating batsmen cannot stand muster on seaming pitches with grass, was there any doubt that we will not surrender in South Africa, or for that matter England and Australia later on in 2018?

Not that this issue wasn't raised? Skipper Kohli himself raised the issue and when no one listened in the BCCI, he chose to take a break for personal reasons like all frustrated managers do in any organisation when the bosses aren't listening. In response to Suresh Menon's column - Between The Wickets - Another Tough Tour Without Enough Preparation Time (The Hindu, Dec 19, 2017), this reader had suggested (vide letter dated 22 December 2017 to the editor of The Hindu) that instead of a meaningless series of matches against Sri Lanka, the top-22 players of India could have played a couple of three-day games at Dharamshala in conditions similar to South Africa. It was also suggested that India should have played at least three warm-up matches in South Africa against any opposition to get used to the conditions. What the Indian team management chose to do, in their frustration at the upcoming improbable challenge, was to scrap a two-day tour game to give the overworked players a rest! 

So if anything hasn't changed, it is the same dismal start to an overseas tour. Losing inside, effectively three days, is definitely better than what Zimbabwe had to suffer in a Test match recently - losing in two days. The Indian bowlers gave the South African batsmen a virtual scare, not once but twice in the match. But the batsmen failed to answer the call of duty.

Team selection was the starting point of it all. Why drop K L Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane in preference to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, who are flat-track limited-overs bullies at home? Pujara's failure and also Kohli's and Vijay's raises deep concerns. But these three are sure to figure out what went wrong. India may also have to think of playing four fast bowlers and forego the spin option altogether if conditions are similar in the remaining two Tests.

The numero uno lesson for the numero uno Test team - prepare properly.

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