Birmingham: For just a fleeting moment, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's mask slipped off his face on Saturday evening. "What do you mean we have not worked hard enough," he asked at the inquisition, following India's mortifying defeat at the Edgbaston Ground ."We have come here after playing 200 days of cricket. What more do you want," he retorted, in response to a specific question by our reporter. He was not entirely off the ball: an Indian player, theoretically, could have been on the field for 119 days in the last year. Add the World Cup and IPL non-playing days, and you would not be too far from that mindboggling, if not numbing, figure .
But the big question in the aftermath of the loss of face, World No. 1 ranking and series is not if India had played too much cricket; it is if they had actually played enough to be in the position to defend their bastion. Did they prepare properly? Indeed, did they even come here as a team?
The fact is, perhaps, for the first time, the players arrived here from two different parts of the world: desolate and weary. If Dhoni led a tired band straight from West Indies, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and S Sreesanth arrived from India, all after recovering from injuries .
Sachin Tendulkar was already in England, enjoying his annual holiday with the family. It's a moot point if any of them was even aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, let alone if a plan was in place. Maybe, they thought the insider's presence and their own depth and talent would be enough to retain the crown .
In the one and only three day game, Dhoni, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh took rest; Zaheer Khan bowled only in the first innings, withdrawing from the second under the cover of strategy: you see, India didn't want Andrew Strauss to get the measure of him.
Suresh Raina, ironically and maybe misleadingly, scored an unbeaten 103. All the others got starts and, maybe, got carried away; the bowlers, though, only got a taste of what was to come. The signs were there for all to see; nobody paid attention.
Zaheer broke down in the first Test; Tendulkar was weakened by a viral at a crucial phase of the game. Gambhir missed the second with an unfortunate injury; Harbhajan came up with an abdominal strain during the match. Yuvraj broke his finger while batting.
In the first two matches, India had their chances; they just didn't take them, either with bat or ball. Worse, their fielding steadily deteriorated with each passing down. As Dhoni said everything that could have wrong went wrong.
If they had taken the last two wickets at Lord's or at Trent Bridge, it could have been a different story; if they had not succumbed to the second new ball in both the Tests, they could well have been number one even now.
By the time, they arrived in Birmingham, India were down and almost out. Sehwag had already joined the team, and there were hopes of a turnaround, of a dramatic fightback. But the 'saviour' was given a royal welcome: a king pair.
To understand the depth of the demolition, one just has to look at Raina: from a confident, attacking batsman he has been reduced to a scampering bunny. To get an inkling of what the future holds, though, one has to study Dravid's predicament on the tour.
He has been the most accomplished batsman on either side, even though Pietersen and Cook scored doubles. Yet, he has dropped more catches than anybody else too. It only means that his concentration is flagging; it also means that at least some players are tired. Maybe, Dhoni has a point .
