NEW DELHI: 1983 World Cup winner Sandeep Patil on Wednesday described India’s recent series loss to New Zealand as a ‘wake-up call’, urging the team to leave the past behind as they gear up for the upcoming Australia tour.
Patil emphasized that India must learn from their mistakes in order to compete effectively on Australian soil, where conditions and the quality of the opposition present unique challenges.
Rohit Sharma‘s Indian team will soon arrive in Australia with their pride on the line, following a 0-3 series loss to New Zealand at home that has disrupted their World Test Championship plans.
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As Team India aims to regroup and deliver a strong performance in the five-Test series, former selector and ex-cricketer Patil expressed confidence in the team’s ability to bounce back.
Patil believes the squad is talented and resilient enough to overcome recent setbacks and refocus on achieving success in challenging Australian conditions.
“They have to play against Australia in Australia, they will have to forget what happened there last time. They will also have to forget what happened in this series (against New Zealand) and look forward,” said Patil during the launch of his book titled ‘Beyond Boundaries‘.
“We lost all practice games before winning the World Cup, so they should remember… you have to think positive and play positively only then you will get a positive result,” he said.
“If you play defensive cricket and think of winning, it is not going to happen,” he added.
However, Patil noted that the historic series whitewash by New Zealand serves as a wake-up call for Indian cricket.
“This (series loss) was like a wake-up call. It’s not like our team has been playing badly. A few months back they won the T20 World Cup. There are some big players in our team, surely they will bounce back,” he said.
“They must have learnt so many things from this loss,” he added.
Patil expressed confidence in India’s ability to recover strongly, emphasising their consistent pattern of resurgence after setbacks.
“After every defeat, you have always seen the Indian team bouncing back. Not because I am an Indian and we all are Indians, but they will bounce back because they are a very good side,” he stated.
Regarding the Perth pitch, Patil noted its evolution from its previous characteristics, whilst highlighting the generally favourable batting conditions in Australian grounds.
“Perth back then was a fast wicket, it is not the same anymore. Australian wickets are basically batting-friendly wickets,” he observed.
He addressed the recent series loss against New Zealand, attributing it to underwhelming batting performances rather than outright failure.
“We lost the series (against New Zealand) because the batting didn’t do well. I will not use the word ‘failed’ because it is negative. We just did not do well in the batting department.”
“We have Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and so many (other) great players. I am sure they would have got together and talked about it.”
