Is the
Indian Premier League (IPL) becoming a major distraction for the Indian team members – enough for them to go down to a humiliating defeat in the Ahmedabad Test? On the face of it, such a debacle – India’s first innings defeat in three days at home – is quite unbelievable given the formidable record of the hosts in this country. How can a team that has the better of a drawn first Test at Chennai rattling up 627 in quick time be shot out for 76 in 20 overs before lunch on the first day? Even given the difference in the nature of the two surfaces, such volatile happenings in a matter of a few days cannot just be shrugged off. After all, Indian batsmen have of late done well on fast and bouncy tracks, the Perth Test being the best example.
Lack of preparation and lack of commitment are the two reasons that are being heard of most in the last couple of days. Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar is in no doubt that some of the players lacked commitment and suggested that they were distracted by the build-up to the IPL. He is convinced that the Indian team did not prepare adequately for the Ahmedabad Test. "Even after considering that the teams spent five hot and humid days in Chennai, the absence of some players for two whole days out of the three rest days between the two Tests was strange to say the least," Gavaskar wrote in his column. During this time, some players appeared at promotional functions for their IPL team and, as Gavaskar pointed out, the focus on preparation for a Test match cannot be switched on and off just like that.
Not unexpectedly, the average Indian cricket fan is angry that the team currently ranked second in the ICC ratings should have gone down to their worst defeat at home since losing to Australia by an innings and 127 runs in New Delhi in 1959 and the current debate is how much the IPL has indirectly been the cause of this. Former Test wicket keeper Kiran More also agrees with Gavaskar that the players, by attending IPL functions in between matches instead of training at the nets, looked woefully out of sorts at Ahmedabad.
The IPL indeed has caught everyone’s fancy – even those not normally interested in cricket. The multimillion-dollar Twenty20 extravaganza, which has signed on the world's top players for a 44-day competition between eight city teams, has been advertised as if India is hosting the World Cup. And since so much money is riding on the mega event, the investors are bound to project this as the greatest show on earth so that they can lure people to watch it. And one way is to get the superstars for various commercial shoots and promotional activities along with film stars who are already on the bandwagon. Busy with this schedule, the players are not able to spend the time required at the nets or be involved in the mental preparation for the Test matches against South Africa. The IPL incidentally starts three days after the third and final Test at Kanpur.
Interestingly enough, the South Africans, some of who are also going to play in the IPL, declined invitations to appear in the commercial shoots and promotional activities. For them, winning the Test series is all important. They have come here on a mission and they have been preparing hard to accomplish it and end up with a series triumph that will see them displace India from the second position in the ICC rankings. Their scientific preparation was quite obvious in the methodical and speedy demolition of the Indian team at Ahmedabad.
South African coach Micky Arthur in fact has gone on record as saying that the credit for the victory should go to a bowling strategy that was devised after the dull, high-scoring draw in the first Test at Chennai. Admitting that the South Africans had made the strategic mistake in focusing on swing bowling in Chennai, he said that after the game was over the team’s think tank spent a lot of time with the bowlers to work out the best way forward. ``We realised we needed to be a lot more aggressive and we spoke about really hitting the deck at the right length, over after over and we also talked about roughening up the Indian batsmen with short deliveries, and more importantly, the follow-up deliveries after the bouncers,’’ said Arthur.
The key in the revised strategy, Arthur revealed, was to get the Indian batsmen out of their traditional comfort zone. "We realised after all those discussions that the crucial aspect was to force India's batsmen to play outside their comfort zone, which is the front foot. We decided we would never allow them to settle down in that forward zone, but instead force them back with aggressive bowling. Hit the deck and hit it in the right areas is what we kept repeating to ourselves.’’
This is the kind of elaborate planning and deep tactical thinking that wins Test matches. Will the Indian team management take a leaf out of South Africa’s book at least for the Kanpur game?
