age is not the only issue - technical ability is the main issue

If we all calmly asses the data, we can clearly see all Indian batsmen lacked the ability to consistently play against hostile pace bowling.

A serious BCCI level soul searching should have started after england series but the powers that be avoided such root cause analysis.

Now that the same problem was forced on India, now the focus shifted to seniors and their age. This is a secondary issue. If you analyze the batting scores of the past 7 away tests, they show the best technical ability is shown by Dravid ( 3 centuries, one fifty and a serious 47) followed by SRT with multiple good starts. Yes, they failed to match the standards they have set for themselves and failed to help India. That was a failure. But what are the total contributions of rest of the group excluding the senior three. rare fifties to save their test place. Even good starts were few and far between.

Indian batsmen were ill equipped to face consistent pace bowling that bowls full and concentrates on off stump line. That is in addition to historical weakness against rising ball and bouncers on the body.

BCCI needs to think short term and long term. These actions are in addition to normal coaching to improve technique.

Short term: BCCI should find ways to send top 10 batsmen to play in england or australia for min of two months every year. Those countries should be happy to entertain India since India produces the revenue for future.

Long term: Indian should designate 10 ranji venues as fast bowler friendly and make sure Indian tournaments are played regularly on those venues. Selection to away tours must take performance on those venues as a major criteria.

India may even have to develop two distinct sets of national team. One for local conditions filled with flat tarck bullies (yuv raj, Raina etc.) and one for international (outside sub continent) that will consist of players who can play pace and swing (At present it is difficult to give examples but let me hope that Kohli, Rahane, Mukund, and pujara form that core).

Dravid and SRT will go soon whether one forces them or not. Indian needs to address its perennial technical weakness to play competitive cricket around the world.

BCCI will Paper over this crisis by shelving Laxman now and Dravid in few more months. India is spending a lot of time within country for the next two years. I am afariad these sad memories will fade.

Will Indian people forget this slide in to cricketing poverty and flock to see IPL?

While I agree with most of the suggestions I don't think BCCI would care for any of those as those actions won't fill their coffers so IPL wins and there are those who suggest that game has to change with the times and support IPL to the hilt.

Back to technical abilities, reflexes decline with age, case in point Dravid, he probably would've blocked the ball that got him out successfully a few years ago. Same goes to Laxman who is never known for his foot work, relied on his reflexes/hand-eye coordination. This is where young guys would have fared better even though may not be as sound technically as seniors.

Age and reflexes. Complete agreement. However none of the younger generation showed the technique to cope with the fast moving ball. Even Kohli had tough time yesterday but the good thing about him is he cut out poor percentage shots and focused on his strengths.

There is merit to the argument of losing with youngsters. But if India thinks it can put a capable team by just blooding youngsters, it will fail because a test match is no place to learn technique. One can learn finer points and improve but one will have a tough time to start at fundamentals.

BCCI has to think hard to have a system in place to develop good bowlers, fielders and batsmen. Otherwise India will not be competitive against pace and seam in away conditions. This has been proven several times in Indian cricket history. The decline of Indian hockey is another story that BCCI should study and learn.

Ive read up on this weak /bad knee issue .

Indian men and women are very prone to having bad knees and and are undergoing knee joint implants at an alarming rate ...in their late 40s

probably in our genes ..our brains are excellent but bodies are not

truthbetold wrote:

There is merit to the argument of losing with youngsters. But if India thinks it can put a capable team by just blooding youngsters, it will fail because a test match is no place to learn technique. One can learn finer points and improve but one will have a tough time to start at fundamentals.

I don't think they all lack fundamentals. Rohit, Pujara and Abhinav Mukund have shown good temperament by scoring triple hundreds in first class cricket.

truthbetold wrote:

BCCI has to think hard to have a system in place to develop good bowlers, fielders and batsmen. Otherwise India will not be competitive against pace and seam in away conditions. This has been proven several times in Indian cricket history. The decline of Indian hockey is another story that BCCI should study and learn.

I don't know what's wrong with our pace bowlers. Balaji, Sreesanth & RP singh (Zaheer & Nehra to some extent) have shown great promise early in their careers bowled consistently in mid 140s, only to breakdown after a few good series. Munaf & Irfan are a different story no idea what happened to them. It proves one thing though, BCCI lacks tools to blood young players nor taking care of the ones that pop-up.

chameli wrote:Ive read up on this weak /bad knee issue .

Indian men and women are very prone to having bad knees and and are undergoing knee joint implants at an alarming rate ...in their late 40s

probably in our genes ..our brains are excellent but bodies are not

Knee replacements could be due to weight issue as well as genetics. In terms of brains, I really hope you are right because Indians need one of the two brains or brawn.

C. Dude,

Lot of Indian batsmen including Brijesh Patel scored thousands of runs in India only to disappoint in away series. The structure of Indian cricket does not help a player to develop good technique against pace and seam bowling. Their good footwork against spin fails when it comes to fundamentals against fast bowling.

Indian batsmen and bowlers who played in english counties picked up those additional fundamentals and proved to be valuable to India.

truthbetold wrote:C. Dude,

Lot of Indian batsmen including Brijesh Patel scored thousands of runs in India only to disappoint in away series. The structure of Indian cricket does not help a player to develop good technique against pace and seam bowling. Their good footwork against spin fails when it comes to fundamentals against fast bowling.

Indian batsmen and bowlers who played in english counties picked up those additional fundamentals and proved to be valuable to India.

This is not unique to us, remember, Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash?