Debacle Down Under: Is arrogance and superstar culture to blame?

It’s now been more than 48 hours since India bit the dust in Sydney to concede a 3-1 series defeat to Australia — losing their grip on the Border–Gavaskar Trophy after a decade and failing to make it to the World Test Championship (WTC) final for the first time.

This, barely two months after they suffered a whitewash at the hands of New Zealand for their first reverse at home after 12 years.

Certainly the two series defeats — suffered under different conditions — have thoroughly busted all myths about the strength of India as a Test team. It’s quite the nadir in recent times. No wonder the TV pundits have been unforgiving as they pan the team.

No prizes for guessing that the anger has been predominantly directed at the ‘Big Two’, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, while many feel there is an urgent need for an early appraisal of head coach Gautam Gambhir and his support staff.

This is in complete contrast to the euphoria that followed India’s ending of a major ICC trophy jinx with the T20 World Cup triumph six months back — but then, red ball cricket is a different beast altogether. And truth be told, it’s the underlying arrogance in the top tier of the Indian team — the denial mode which percolates right up to the BCCI when it comes to planning for a major tour like this one — that’s done the most harm here.

Let’s take on the arrogance bit to start with.

Just refer to the Rohit Sharma interview on the second day of the Sydney Test where, after declaring that he has ‘opted out’ because of a lack of runs, the captain took on the media and TV pundits, saying that someone with a laptop or a microphone cannot decide his future.

Just as he is entitled to his own opinion, it's a fact that Sharma has given enough fodder to the critics by managing 31 runs from the three Tests he played, tinkering with the batting order to suit his needs, even as his captaincy was uninspiring and defensive.  

Now, cut to his explanation after the humiliation against the Kiwis. “We had been winning for 12 years at home and hence a failure once in a while is acceptable,” said Sharma after the 3-0 hammering. His disarming manner at the press conferences makes him a winner on most occasions, but certainly not this one.  

Let's talk about Kohli next. It was extremely frustrating to see him falling to an identical Australian plan on seven of his nine innings (accruing 190 runs, including the Perth century) on what was certainly his final tour of Australia.

There's a famous story from back in the day of how Kohli fine-tuned his game after a dismal tour of England in 2014 where Jimmy Anderson had his number with the outswingers. He picked Sachin Tendulkar’s brains to turn himself around at the time:

“The 2014 (tour) will be a milestone in my career. A lot of people take good tours as a milestone, but for me, that tour of 2014 is always going to be the milestone in my career from where I thought the thing might go bad for me very soon,” Kohli reflected during a chat with Mayank Agarwal on bcci.tv a few years back.

The next four or five years saw Kohli at the peak of his prowess. One wonders, then, what stopped him from having a chat with Sunil Gavaskar this time. The Little Master was a part of the Channel 7 commentary team throughout the series.

Was it the ego at the work?

The likes of Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan have urged the BCCI to bring a change in the ‘superstar culture’ in the team — and the decision-makers will have a major quandary before the next Test series: another five-match affair in England.

If Kohli had fallen chasing the seamers’ deliveries on the fifth stump in Australia, he struggled to get his rhythm against Mitchell Santner & Co. in the previous series, which revived calls for him and Sharma to go back to domestic cricket to get into the rigours of the longer version.

Kohli, in fact, is known to be operating like an island in the Indian team. He divides his time between his family in England and in India and has, since fatherhood, joined the national squad barely a few days before each Test series — a practice that Gavaskar subtly alluded to while summing up from Sydney.

In the chockablock schedule of international cricket these days, the tour games of the past have become a casualty — and this is where the BCCI could have stepped in to ensure the squad is better prepared for the conditions.

India’s visit of Australia covered 57 days, out of which a maximum of 25 days could be taken up by the five Tests. All they had was a two-day game against the Prime Minister’s XI by way of a practice game, besides that — was it impossible to squeeze in at least one or more tour games?

May better sense prevail ahead of the England tour — on all fronts!