The first match of the Ashes made us fall in love with test cricket again. It was test cricket at its best. Both teams were a match to each other in terms of skill and patience. I wonder why India could not put up a similar fight against Australia in the recently concluded World Test Championship. I also wonder why this upcoming world cup is not a cake walk for India. Here is my conclusion:

India team is overconfident

To be honest, India largely derives confidence from its performance in IPL. However, what is important to understand is that IPL is not a domestic league. It is an international league that has foreign players too. The match winners, more often than not, are high value foreign players, winning matches through their performance. Though the league helps build Indian talent for the T20 format, it does not do a great deal to hone local players on technique, temperament, and patience. It is simply making young batsmen throw their bat at everything. The bowlers are also trying to save runs rather than take wickets.

India team is overrated

This is a truth that is hardly spoken but is as true as it can be. Indian team has some great cricketers, but we tend to make them much bigger than what they actually are. Though the records suggest that we are right at the top, but those records have always come on extremely friendly pitches. Extremely batting friendly pitches for one dayers and super spiny tracks for Test matches put us at a great advantage while playing under home conditions. Not that we shouldn’t utilize the home advantage but playing excessively under such conditions only makes our life tougher when we travel abroad. More importantly, it is the overconfidence that we carry from these wins, that affects our game outside of India.

BCCI only bothers about money

BCCI with its politics and misplaced priorities has only made matters worse. There must be something grossly wrong in the board if a former test captain of the Indian team resigns and give statements in the media to contradict BCCI. It suggests that not all is well within the team.

How England groomed a T20 team is a very good example

Everything is about priority. I still remember how few years back England was purely a test playing nation. They weren’t up to scratch on one day and T20 format. They invested in T20 cricket and now we see how strong they have become in the format. India needs to follow the same strategy to improve its performance in One day and Test cricket. Having different teams for different formats and grooming players accordingly is a good way. Resting players when necessary is needed. Most importantly, we should stop creating superstars that we want to see playing every format and BCCI should understand that making money is not the only objective it should be working towards.