London: It may take only two more days for the world to get the new Test cricket champion - England. Current Test no 1 India lost the first two Tests, at Lord’s and Trent Bridge, by massive margins, 196 and 319 runs respectively.As the English batsmen piled up the runs against a jaded bowling attack at Edgbaston, India have come perilously close to losing the third Test by an even higher margin.
A loss here means India lose their no 1 Test rank to England. Read: Dhoni's men need to win one, draw one to save their No. 1 Test rank
Put simply, M S Dhoni and his posterboys have not played cricket the way the world champions should have. It’s not surprising that Team India’s supporters have been left wondering what has gone wrong since the famous World Cup win less than five months ago. Read: Tears of joy roll down tough players’ cheeks
We, at dailybhaskar.com tried to figure out what’s changed. These are some reasons we came up with.
Too much IPL, it’s still on their minds: Cricket is all about commerce, at least in India. That’s what the rest of the cricket world has been ranting about. Indian cricketers have not disappointed the critics. So, one had Virender Sehwag carry his injury as captain of the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League till he thought his team was still in the running. He opted out of IPL and decided to go in for treatment the minute his team was out of the reckoning. That meant he was out of the West Indies tour and the first two Test matches in England. He joined the team at Edgbaston but was out first ball in both innings.
Sachin’s sudden loss of form: Has the pressure of getting the 100th 100 got to Sachin? Going by his current form, it certainly seems so. The mind games that began before the series were targeted at Sachin. Knowing him, he will come back with an answer. For the time being, though, India are struggling with the batting. Read: Tendulkar's lost form is disappointing: Ganguly
Injuries galore, where’s the Trainer?
It was a sorry sight seeing Zaheer Khan pull out with an injury in the first innings of the Lord’s Test. It was equally disappointing when Harbhajan Singh was ruled out after the second Test at Trent Bridge, with a ‘stomach injury’ that Dhoni was at a loss for words to describe. Bhajji is out of the team, nursing what seems to be a tear injury in the abdomen.
Zaheer did his cause no good in his so-called comeback game - the practice match against Northamptonshire. He bowled a few overs before pulling out again…from the rest of the series. Read: Zaheer Khan to undergo surgery.
