Ranji Final epitomises the Indian Test scenario

For the past several months, the Indian Cricket team does not seem to be doing anything right in Test matches overseas.Cricket followers younger than fifty are trying to remember any similar bad patch overseas.The 3-0, defeat in England was followed by a 2-1 defeat in the West Indies, so it has been better for last 40 years or so.And here the Ranji Final won on the basis of first innings offers the epitome of the situation.

Tamil nadu was packed with recent India discards.Vijay,Mukund,Badrinath and Karthik besides Balaji.They missed Ashwin but they still were a stronger batting side playing on home surface.They lost the toss and lost the plot.That has been happening to India so often, a big partnership and they fall back.A batting team so strong collapsed for 295.How often has this happened on the Tours by India recently.And when Ganguly had led his team to Australia they were not fazed by 600 runs at Adelaide and went on to win a match.When Gavaskar led his team in 1980-81,they lost the first test but came back to draw the second test and win the third when Australia needed just around 150 runs to win the match.Those teams were not dominating World beaters of Australia from 1996-2009 or the West Indies in late seventies and early eighties.However, they were not the ones to be cowed down.And no one dared to talk down to either Gavaskar or Ganguly in their playing days.

Inspite of a commanding lead and no realistic chance of losing, rajasthan did not enforce the follow on.If India has not been going for wins,We know where the attitude comes from.There is a case for a six or seven day Ranji Final and no trophy on first innings lead.Rajasthan's victory though creditible is diminished by the lack of desire to win outright.Cricket matches are played to be won.To fight and draw is all right.To settle for a draw with more than a day's play remaining and 326 runs lead shows disrespect to the game.No wonder very few people turned up for the match.Just two finals back in 2010, Mysore had a full house for a Ranji Final.I hope Akash Chopra will write a book on this next.

The Indian batting colllapses so easily facing big totals that one looks back longingly to the days when Gavaskar could bat for a day for close to hundred and on benign pitches nobody ever got him out cheaply. Throughout the seventies and eighties India used the grinding ability to draw matches at Home.Then came Kumble and the rest is history.Losing at home became a rarity.From there they went on to build a team that could fight well overseas.

We have come back many steps and the next two years will be a time when India can rebuild at home.What India can do is to send a strong India A side whenever Visitors come to play Pakistan in the UAE and play a couple of build up matches..They can at least be familiar with conditions similar to home.

The scenario as it unfolds,Indfia has a bigger hole in bowling to fill after Kumble and Harbhajan than the batting.Any four of Raina, Rohit Sharma, Kohli, Pujara, Rahane can make up for the batsmen retiring but Bowling?Only Ashwin among the spinners took wickets in the Indian winter amongst spinners in first class cricket and he hardly bowled to the flat track bullies.We need to regroup and quickly as October comes with little first class cricket in between.Give our spinners "Turners", I say and hope for the Best.