Peter Roebuck

If India has any interest in retaining its top position in the Test rankings, it needs to start applying its mind to the task. Certainly, the think-tank cannot keep making the same mistakes and expect different results. Within a week, England can grab top spot, and deservedly so, because they have worked hard, prepared well and given the five-day game its due.

India has made three blunders in the last few seasons and not learnt from any of them. Four years ago, they arrived in Australia, played a humdrum three-day match on a club ground in Melbourne, and then took on the prime of Australia in the Boxing Day Test

Defeat was inevitable. Acrimony followed in the ensuing SCG Test, and that distracted attention from the hard facts. India had been its own worst enemy.

More recently, India sent a weakened team to the West Indies. Bear in mind that it was not another forgettable ODI series, but a Test series against a powerhouse – albeit one currently in decline. Several top players were rested, a strategy that insulted the hosts and Test cricket in equal measure.

To make matters worse, the rested players had just taken part in the IPL. No one, then, spoke about breaks.

Nor did they mention the primacy of Test cricket or that for the first time in its history, India was the top team. They seemed more interested in bangles and beads.

In case anyone has forgotten, IPL is a footling domestic tournament full of dancing girls, full tosses and sixes struck over shortened boundaries.

Apparently, too, it is wearing thin. Yet it was regarded as more important than a Test series.

Have not the chickens come home to roost?

Inept

India promptly repeated its Australian folly by arriving in England a week tardily; playing a routine match against a county and then going to Lord’s to take part in the 2000th Test match.

It was a memorable occasion and England rose to it. Amongst the visitors, only Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Ishant Sharma performed to the anticipated standard.

That these combatants stood head and shoulders above their comrades might have been predicted because they were also the team’s best players in the Caribbean. Their games and minds had been sharpened for battle. The rest looked inept, especially in the field. It was not the stuff of champions.

Afterwards Mahendra Dhoni observed that his team had been unlucky. And it’s true; Zaheer’s injury was a cruel blow, Sachin Tendulkar was sick and Gautam Gambhir was forced from the field.

As a rule, though, fortune favours the better prepared outfit. India suffered setbacks because its players were not match fit or properly prepared.

Recipe for defeat

The fielding was sloppy for the same reason. Gambhir and Sehwag had incurred injuries in IPL, and kept playing. It was a recipe for defeat. Test cricket does not like to be taken lightly. It’s a serious game for serious teams.

In the past, India has been able to rally after losing the first match of a series, but that might not happen this time. Andrew Strauss’s team looks red-hot and hungry.

England has not been the top team since 1956. Motivation is high. Contrastingly, the Indians look lethargic and loose. Admittedly, it only takes one mighty thrust from a superb player to change the mood.

But Dhoni himself needs to wake up, because his keeping was poor and his captaincy was worse. However he’s not to be underestimated. An England victory, though, might not be a bad thing.

After all, they put Test cricket first and can be relied upon to advance its cause more enthusiastically.

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This article was written for The Hindu. 30 July 2011