Have India Forgotten How To Win?

By Gaurang
June 29 2006

A frustrating inability to close out matches against one of the weakest teams in the world has India seeking a last gasp win in Jamaica.

Having won only one solitary game out of eight internationals played on their tour of the West Indies, the unwise taunt of Indian coach Greg Chappell after India won the first ODI that “West Indies seem to have forgotten how to win” now seems to have had a similar impact as the taunt of another Greig, Tony Grieg, when he infamously quipped about the 1976 West Indies side that if they got behind their players would "grovel" under the pressure.

India came into the current tour rated as one of the top three teams in World cricket in both forms of the game and have struggled to win against a team that is rated eight, i.e. the lowest among the traditional Test cricket countries, and barely above minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Even accounting for India’s traditional weakness outside the Indian sub-continent, this has been a very unexpected and disappointing performance so far, especially in the ODI series, but even to an extent in the Test matches.

And the reason for India’s predicament both in ODIs and especially in the Tests has been a lack of boldness, and the lack of going for broke, when the chance has been offered. True, they were very unlucky with the weather in the St. Lucia match, and have not had much luck with the umpiring decisions as well, but even then there were chances in all three matches for them to seize the moment and force wins. But under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, India seem to have adopted a much more cautious approach to their game plan. Dravid has looked cool, calm and collected as a captain, and always seems to be trying something (usually something orthodox) in a well thought out manner, without too many moves based on gut feeling or hunches. What however has been missing is the fire in the belly, go for broke, emotionally charged deep burning desire to win and damn the consequences attitude.

His easy acceptance of India’s lack of wins in all three matches so far, may only be a diplomatic façade, but it does appear that they don’t seem to rankle him as much as one would expect they should, while Brian Lara has breathed more and more easily as the series has progressed, escaping with a one wicket draw in the first match to being in a position in the third match of at least being able, if not willing, to force India to follow-on.

Dravid now has one final chance coming up in about 48 hours to take one last gamble and go for an all out win. A draw will not be good enough now. It is interesting to see, whether a side that abandoned coach Greg’s five bowler theory the minute it stepped out of the sub-continent will now pick five bowlers in the final match. Afterall it is bowlers who are required to take the 20 wickets usually needed to win.

The irony is that the pitch at the final venue, Kingston, Jamaica, is likely to be the liveliest of the four pitches in the series. On such a pitch it may make sense to shore up the Indian batting line up, which despite its awesome strength on paper, always seems vulnerable when the pitch has a tinge of green, some bounce and pace, and especially when it is moving around in the air and off the seam.

The unpleasant task thus facing Rahul Dravid is whether to drop one of either Yuvraj, Laxman or Kaif to make room for Irfan Pathan and go with a 3 seam 2 spin attack or to drop Harbhajan Singh and go with a 3 seam 1 spin attack. The lack of a batsman who can also bowl some seam, a Ganguly for instance, has also limited Dravid's options. Some would argue that Irfan Pathan should now be considered that sixth batsman who can also bowl a bit of seam. But Pathan's form with the bat on this tour belies that belief.

Thus not many other changes, barring unforseen factors such as injury or illness seem likely. Which option Dravid choses will say much about his desire to win versus his desire not to lose. And in this case actually sticking with only 4 bowlers including 3 seamers may be the bolder thing to do. Hopefully for Indian fans it will not be the case that Brian Lara, like Clive Lloyd before him has the last laugh.