India batting collapse: 36 to 78, a serious problem now


India batting collapse: 36 to 78, a serious problem now

Kohli in 2021 has seen, like all of us, progress and difficulty

Once bitten, twice shy. Once an accident, twice a coincidence, three times a pattern. Summon whatever proverb or platitude you will, but there is now – after multiple India batting collapses – no escaping the fact that the current batting line up is not armoured to consistently win Test series abroad.

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And yet they somehow have managed to script enough miracles for a lifetime in the last 8 months of 2021 alone. The resurrection in Melbourne following the decimation at Adelaide. Followed by the Houdini act in Sydney and finally the jaw dropper in Gabba. Then there was Lord’s earlier this month. Down till the first hour of the final day, only to scale the most befuddling turnaround in recent memory.

There has been plenty to hail, laud, like, savour and fantasize for Indian cricket fans following the resumption of cricket. And, at this very point, one must take a moment to wholeheartedly express unflinching gratitude to the cricketers who – like every one of us – have braved the pandemic whilst simultaneously playing live sport. All this while staying away from family and loved ones with the constant uncertainty and fear of human lives being reduced to mere statistics in the face of a common enemy the human eye cannot even see.

The implications of our reality are far greater than results on a playing field and nothing can ever change that. However, one must still analyze what they see and try to keep the external factors away. That is the other side of sport, as in life, where the end game eventually is performance and merit with little relevance to past glory.

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India batting collapse – happening too often

India batting collapse Kohli Anderson
Even Kohli has been unable to arrest the India batting collapse

Our game – like any other – is ruthless, and it passes by those who cannot adapt to its breakneck pace. And the latest dagger is now definitively pointing towards the Indian middle order.

There is good reason for the narrative to have taken the shape of a raging debate too. Irrespective of what is officially communicated, this is not a reactionary sentiment arising from one bad day. India has, time and again, found themselves faltering at the very hint of a swinging ball. One might argue that most teams in the world are not geared to handle the swinging ball, given the paucity of red ball cricket in comparison to its shorter counterparts. But India have publicly called themselves the best and brandished borderline arrogance calling pitches a mere prop to their excellence in skill execution.

Yet, one can trace back to instances from 2017 showing how the team has been unable to see out difficult phases. It has always been a case of half an hour or one hour that has caused the India batting collapse. But the very fact that more than four years since the ICC Champions Trophy final, the very same issues are still being exposed.

In layman terms, monsoon has been causing floods leading to heavy damage, but a dam is not being constructed. And the 78 all out at Lord’s or the ignominy of 36 at Adelaide are not the only instances of an India batting collapse since the 2017 final. There have been two collapses in New Zealand prior to the ODI World Cup of 2019. In that World Cup itself, India lost to the same opponent following a collapse. They also collapsed against New Zealand in the warmup game prior to the World Cup.

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Adelaide India 36 all out
Adelaide India 36 all out scoreboard from December 2020

That is three times the same outcome against the same opposition from which nothing changed to combat the fourth and fateful eventuality in the semi final. There have been more such instances against other opponents. It is not just half an hour of bad cricket or bad luck it is more than four years of patterned collapses, and not much seems to have changed.

For the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, this is their third tour of England, and one would expect them to have figured out a way to score runs in all this time.

India batting collapse – comebacks cannot be the norm

Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane needs to step up consistently

The two aforementioned two average less than 30 in England and thus, there is little surprise that India have barely made a mark on English soil in the last decade. And, for those who have been following Indian cricket for a while, these India batting collapses are bound to cause greater grief given the bar that had been set by the previous generation.

Take the venue of the latest India batting collapse Headingly, for example, and in 2002, the middle order of India – numbers 3, 4 and 5 – all scored centuries on a green pitch with overcast conditions to help India notch up 628 and secure a famous win. Today’s middle order is a far cry from those times. It becomes doubly saddening given the fact that for the first time in India’s history, the bowling attack has consistently picked apart opposition batsmen.

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And that bowling attack is the source of the team’s bold statements. It sometimes seems strange that a country so historically blessed with batsmen are struggling to enforce irrevocable domination due to the shortcoming of their batting.

Shami and Bumrah batting Lords
Shami and Bumrah rescued an India batting collapse at Lord’s

In fact, the Lord’s and Gabba victories were possible because of the bowlers working overtime. In Australia, it was Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar who rescued India quite wonderfully after a first innings collapse. And in the English capital, it was Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah who most remarkably batted India out of a hole before resuming usual service with their fellow bowlers in bowling the opposition out.

These are unanimously celebrated comebacks that have elevated the men performing them to transcendent statuses. And the very fact that these comebacks are being so widely lauded suggests that they cannot be the norm. One cannot expect consistent victories resulting out of miracles. There is a limit to how many times lightning can strike at one place.

India batting collapse – what or who next?

Cheteshwar Pujara
Cheteshwar Pujara’s confidence is at an all-time low

And there is evidence to suggest that when the batsmen do aid the bowlers, India is capable of winning games abroad. At Nottingham in the first Test, the batsmen played well enough to put India on the brink of victory before rain played spoilsport. In the 2018 tour of Australia, the batsmen put their hands up collectively to ensure that India came away with an unprecedented series victory.

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Even in the losing causes, India just needed two batters, or sometimes even one batsman, to hold fort. The Edgbaston Test match from 2018, for example, saw India fall 31 runs short chasing 194 runs.

Thus, there is a need for change. Whether internal or external, India must now look at their middle order and take a few harsh calls. If it does happen, it will not be the first time an experienced cricketer is dropped and in no way should it be considered a swan song. Sometimes, it can do a player good to return to the drawing board, rest the mind and correct some habits which may have gone unchecked in the unforgiving pace of elite sport.

Perhaps that break is needed for the likes of Pujara and Rahane. While the latter looks solid whenever batting, the former is now representative of a person who has lost the battle within himself. For good players, the low scores are temporary blips if the manner of getting them is a function of confident stroke making. With Pujara, it is now clear that he is thinking of survival first and scoring so far second that the latter has become a task rather than a natural consequence of spending time at the wicket.

Suryakumar Yadav
Is Suryakumar Yadav the answer to stall the pattern of the Indian batting collapse?

Who must replace Pujara or Rahane – who is consistently flattering to deceive – is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Suryakumar Yadav but the picture above sums up why that too is a risk. The Mumbai Indians cricketer is yet to play red ball cricket for India, made his name through limited overs batting and may potentially be thrown in to face the likes of James Anderson in English conditions – swinging ball, overcast skies, green pitch and all that.

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Prithvi Shaw, the other replacement flown in following the Sri Lanka tour has not provided much to raise confidence either. His India U-19 teammate from 2018 has returned home nursing an injury and Shubman Gill’s replacement Mayank Agarwal may thus be the sole plausible replacement.

Or maybe, like all greats do, the middle order will find a way to return to their best and all this talk of an India batting collapse will once again be swept under the carpet.