Dravid should take tough calls, adopt fearless approach

Rahul Dravid has had a tricky start as head coach of the Indian cricket team. Interestingly, India and England had a change of coach and captain for the rescheduled fifth Test, and it’s amazing how fortunes changed for the two teams.

England’s Kiwi head coach Brendon McCullum was up to the task when his wards were staring down the barrel. Prior to his appointment, they had won only one game out of 17 Tests. Their report card since his arrival reads: played and won four.

Not just that; the convincing wins reek of audacity. After the change in their coaching staff, India has played three overseas Tests and lost all of them. While doing that, Dravid’s men missed two glorious opportunities to script history. First, after going 1-0 up in the three-Test series against South Africa, they let the Proteas bounce back and take the series 2-1.

It seems India suffered in the absence of ‘Shazball’, the previous combination of Coach Ravi Shastri and Captain Kohli. Incidentally, the very cricket sounding term is a spinoff of ‘Bazball’ – a nickname for the aggressive brand of cricket adopted by England’s new coach McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes.

Despite enjoying an early advantage in both the away tours, the Men in White returned to base empty handed, wondering what went wrong first against the Proteas and now, versus the English side. India under Ravi Shastri’s coaching led the series 2-1 before Covid-19 forced the series decider to be played after a gap of 298 days. The visitors conceded the lead to level the series 2-2 after England chased down a historic 378 runs.

To be fair to Dravid, his first challenge was a big one – to finish an incomplete 2021 job against a spirited side. One can argue that he didn’t get the best team and perhaps, the Kohli-Dravid regime ended even before it could begin. Also, Rohit Sharma, the all-format captain for India, was all set to lead the team against England but tested positive for the dreaded Covid and Jasprit Bumrah had to lead the team.

All said and done, Team India should take some bold decisions. There’s a need to address the vexed issue of non-performers too. The batting order needs reshuffling. They play their next Test in December. Virat Kohli has been going through a prolonged lean patch. His last century came way back in 2019. The management could ask the former captain to do what Cheteshwar Pujara did – play more first-class cricket in the meantime to rediscover his touch and form. India went defensive way too early in the game – something that wasn’t seen when Kohli was in charge. It was like India were anticipating an assault.

When it did happen, they had no ‘Plan B’ to counter it. A timid and defensive batting approach in the second innings against England cost us the game. Complacency that our bowlers will pull off victory should end. In the last three overseas Tests, in Johannesburg and Cape Town vs South Africa and Edgbaston vs England, the Indian bowling line-up has taken a combined tally of only nine wickets in the fourth innings.

That tells the complete story. Even Dravid admitted that bowling out teams in the fourth innings had been an issue. This was the eighth largest runchase in history, which England achieved like they were strolling in one of their famous parks. Arguably, the Indians haven’t bowled with the intensity and accuracy to make the teams sweat while trying to defend totals of 240, 212 and 378. In all three instances, the rival teams notched up victory. In 145 years of Test cricket, there have been 57 successful chases of over 275.

England have just nailed four in a row. They are writing new history about the way Tests are played these days. India should follow suit. India’s performance against pace attack in SENA countries recently has been underwhelming. Their potency on Indian soil was never in doubt, but Rahul Dravid should take some tough calls. India’s top four were in all sorts of trouble and this should be dealt with sternly.

Apart from Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, no other Indian batter really rose to the occasion. The scores of India’s top four Gill, Pujara, Vihari and Kohli in the two innings of the just-concluded Test have a lot to tell. Seventeen, 13, 20, 11 and 4, 66, 11, 20 are a tale in themselves.