Team India has come a cropper in South Africa. This isn’t a new phenomenon: our cricketers are known as much for their all-conquering performances at home as for their failures overseas — mainly due to technical deficiencies among batsmen. Cricket is a game that offers immense scope for an individual to perform, and if he utilises that opportunity, his team benefits too. But unless all 11 pull their weight, it’s not easy for a touring team to perform optimally while away from home. Even in the past 10 years of Tests, where there’s been a distinct home bias in the performance of all teams, Team India is seen as more of a laggard in overseas games as it’s still the world’s number one team.
Virat Kohli virtually swept the ICC awards except for best Test batsman, which Australia’s Steve Smith won. The Indian skipper produced an outstanding century in difficult batting conditions at Centurion. It’s his top order colleagues who’ve proved incapable of staying grittily at the crease when conditions favour bowlers. As long as this pattern of poor away performances beyond Asia’s slow pitches persists, what the computers say about India’s pre-eminent Test ranking can be taken with a pinch of salt. Test cricket is a test of technique and temperament, loads of which are needed if a team is to win everywhere, as the great Australian teams of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting did, as did Clive Lloyd’s Windies of an earlier era. No one begrudges the millions modern Indian cricketers earn, but it appears they aren’t entirely justifying it. Also, the captain should be angrier with his team than quarrel with the media.
