To say that I am unimpressed by India is a vast understatement.
If they are good enough to have won their last 2 series in Australia they should have been good enough to beat them in England. But their disrespect for the highest form of the game undid them yet again.
Predictably they turned up far too late to prepare for the World Test Championship Final.
They then made fools of themselves by inserting the opposition at The Oval, of all places, when everyone knows that in England the only places you EVER insert the opposition are (rarely) Trent Bridge and Headingley. (To be fair, the not-too-smart Aussies were going to make the same schoolboy error).
And then what happened?
A bunch of thirty-somethings who have spent a lifetime losing in England, New Zealand and South Africa performed the way they always have.
Rohit Sharma!
Cheteshwar Pujara!
Virat Kohli!
Ajinka Rahane!
Ravendra Jadeja!
Mohmmad Shami!
Umesh Yadav!
Let me remind you all of what happened in England in 2018.
A young, inexperienced Pakistan team had to play in the same damp, early summer conditions and drew 1-1.
The same Indian players who lost in 2023 - with far more talent and experience than that Pakistan team - then lost 4-1 in much easier conditions.
Why? The Pakistanis arrived early and acclimatised. They practised in a local park, then played a Test in Ireland.
Then again, there is an alternative. Play T20 clown cricket until the eve of the World Test Championship, pick a geriatric team of serial overseas losers, and then insert the opposition on England's fastest, bounciest pitch when the sun is predicted to shine after Lunch.
I was horrified when I learned that even the so-called "young" fast bowler Diraj is already 29 years old. But surely India must have some good young red-ball cricketers. They can't recycle these old men forever. Can they?
If they are good enough to have won their last 2 series in Australia they should have been good enough to beat them in England. But their disrespect for the highest form of the game undid them yet again.
Predictably they turned up far too late to prepare for the World Test Championship Final.
They then made fools of themselves by inserting the opposition at The Oval, of all places, when everyone knows that in England the only places you EVER insert the opposition are (rarely) Trent Bridge and Headingley. (To be fair, the not-too-smart Aussies were going to make the same schoolboy error).
And then what happened?
A bunch of thirty-somethings who have spent a lifetime losing in England, New Zealand and South Africa performed the way they always have.
Rohit Sharma!
Cheteshwar Pujara!
Virat Kohli!
Ajinka Rahane!
Ravendra Jadeja!
Mohmmad Shami!
Umesh Yadav!
Let me remind you all of what happened in England in 2018.
A young, inexperienced Pakistan team had to play in the same damp, early summer conditions and drew 1-1.
The same Indian players who lost in 2023 - with far more talent and experience than that Pakistan team - then lost 4-1 in much easier conditions.
Why? The Pakistanis arrived early and acclimatised. They practised in a local park, then played a Test in Ireland.
Then again, there is an alternative. Play T20 clown cricket until the eve of the World Test Championship, pick a geriatric team of serial overseas losers, and then insert the opposition on England's fastest, bounciest pitch when the sun is predicted to shine after Lunch.
I was horrified when I learned that even the so-called "young" fast bowler Diraj is already 29 years old. But surely India must have some good young red-ball cricketers. They can't recycle these old men forever. Can they?
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