Indian Test cricket and its awful run

Ever since India has toured England and tasted a bitter loss of 4-0 giving away every bit of their Test cricket supremacy to the opponents, the 2011 World Cup champion seems all in news for their awful run only.

India recently have lost their home Test series 2-1 to England with a match drawn at Nagpur; the series which propagandized to be a revengeful saga resulted to be a pale effort from the hosts. With all the introspection and calculations, many a sport (cricket) lover back in India disappointed to their highest emotions rating once a propelling force of Indian Cricket – Sachin Tendulkar – as a spoilsport. Not only Indian cricket lovers, but also the bigwigs of Cricket game too opined that he must get off the field instead of being a spoiler of all-time.

Once the supremacist of world Test Cricket - India - eventually dropped down from their top position all thanks to England’s character and determined cricket back in 2011. Nevertheless to mention, their loss 4-0 to England is completely a over-sized promotion of Tendulkar’s ton of tons. Had the limelight and concern been on then player’s injuries and necessary steps to be taken, India would now be in a position to rule the Test cricket. But, nothing of that sort seen a daylight apart from praising Sachin Tendulkar’s century of centuries. 

No Defence and No Determination

In today’s Indian Test cricket we evidently miss the determined performances like those of Rahul Dravid’s and V.V.S.Laxman’s. Is it because of too much focus on T20 format of the game which Indian’s are crazily admired for? We do accept that Pujara made it to the stands during the India Vs Eng first Test back in Ahmadabad scoring a double ton and stood firm against all the hopeless seniors. But even the youngster endured to be a one time wonder – a big thanks to his so called senior’s teammates who gave nothing motivate.

The gap to be filled

To the worst, the criticism flowing in as by the comments of England batting legend Geoffrey Boycott – India is no longer the force it was in the past and that too two great batsmen Dravid and Laxman have retired, it is evident that India is no longer a Test Cricket nation, at least, an intimidating one. True to Geoffrey’s comments, there is a need to fit the shoes of Dravid and Laxman’s Test cricket play – defending and capitalizing when it requires.

Dipping World Ranks

Adding ice on the cake to India’s poor performance, not only the nation’s ranking but also the player’s individual rankings too are dipping down from the Top 20 cricket ranking list. Sachin has lost his place in Top 20 and Dhoni no way near top 20 as he stands at 38^th position.

In hindsight, nothing to be surprised if someone says, Indian Test cricket going through an awful run.

Times change, and we change with them, so does Tendulkar?

One of the finest batsmen’s of the cricket world, the leading run scorer in both of the age-old formats of the cricket, the only batsmen who managed to reach the peaks of 100 international tons mark, the second greatest Test batsmen as ranked by Wisden, and the second Indian to get the highest Australian honour – The Order of Australia; the list goes on, if we patiently sits for a debate praising Mr. Sachin Tendulkar, the legendary Indian batsmen. 

So does Tendulkar?

On the contrary, all those praises are just going through the gutter against the little master blaster’s (Sachin as widely known as) contemporary performance on the field. As the time passed on, the terror in other team’s bowlers to bowl to Mumbai’s pride (as Sachin is largely referred to) is getting vanished, Sachin’s own followers turning out to be the most violent quibbling pots, the Indian team selectors being questioned constantly over Tendulkar’s permanent slot in the squad irrespective of his pale performances. The problems/criticisms are just mounting against the fact that the ace batsman should be given his due respect to decide upon a big decision on vanishing from International Cricket.

The 39 year old Indian batsman, has nothing in common with the 37 year old Mr. Ricky Ponting – the then Australian Captain, who recently has hanged his boots, ending 17 year old cricket career – but alas, has even compared to the Australian on retirement terms. What the heck!

Is Sachin not even worth of his due respect? How far it is reasonable to compare a batsman of Sachin’s stature to that of one of finest cricketing Captains image of Ricky Ponting? Aren’t we in the middle of ruckus?

We do recognise the factor that Sachin Tendulkar’s respective slot in Team India is causing a blockade to bring-in the new talent. We do consider that Sachin has taken many matches in between to complete his 100^th International ton. We do value that despite being a key resource, is not able to put his mark against the opponents. We do accept that the contemporary cricket needs a Sachin of the then Sharjah match winner, but not a Sachin like old-duck just appearing for the sake of appearance.

But - Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis – times change, and we change with them. So does Tendulkar need to? What’s your opinion?