India’s cricket team has come massively under the microscope after their Test loss to South Africa, as the failings were shot into view afresh after the whitewash at home at the hands of New Zealand. India certainly need to introspect and start building from the foundation under a rookie captain and head coach – a context which has led some to wonder if the standards and expectations should be in line with that stature.
Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa certainly held this view, as he questioned whether the Indian team was good enough and had enough quality to consider themselves World Test Championship contenders, given their inconsistent results.
“Visiting teams play lesser cricket than India and have far more time for preparation. There is too much cricket happening,” warned Uthappa on his YouTube channel.
‘Who is effective outside of Bumrah and Siraj?’
“You are going with one size fits all and trying to produce results. There needs to be a sense of realism about the goal for the next two years,” said Uthappa, asking Gambhir and Gill to contend with where they see the team in the near future.
Particularly, Uthappa questioned if India had enough pace bowling depth beyond their main stars to be effective outside the subcontinent. He questioned the preparedness of this team for that challenge, with India already slipping down the WTC table.
“Yes, you want to get to the WTC final, but is this team ready to get there? Who is really effective outside of Bumrah and Siraj? We are missing a third pacer. They are trying out a bunch of guys. In all honesty, we don’t have a confirmed third fast bowler,” said Uthappa.
India’s desperate need for Test centres
India now have three losses and just four wins in this cycle thus far, which wouldn’t be good enough if this is the kind of performance that continues.
Particularly, India’s poor results against SENA nations at home is a concern, given those are matches India are expected to dominate. Uthappa pointed out that India don’t enjoy home advantage in a way the other main contenders for the WTC do with their limited home venues.
“India don’t have Test centres as a country. You are randomly playing Tests everywhere and trying to produce results in your favour. That takes away from the larger goal,” said Uthappa. “If you have Test centres, you can curate home advantage based on the visiting team. India are not doing that.”
Citing when Virat Kohli made a similar comment, Uthappa said: “Virat spoke of this when he also captained and India are missing home advantage by playing at random venues.”
The need of the hour for India will be to rescue the series against Proteas and level things at 1-1, which will require a result to be produced in Guwahati.
