Why India failed the South Africa Test

When a team has allrounders who aren’t treated as such, it stands to reason that the selectors would have done better by picking specialists

The late great Peter Drucker once said that the purpose of an organisation is to enable ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Given the Indian Test cricket team’s recent track record of ordinariness, including its worst ever loss on Indian soil on Wednesday, despite possessing some individuals with extraordinary abilities, this may be the right time to look at organisational issues — including the abilities of the current coach Gautam Gambhir, and the decisions of the selectors.

A team in transition such as this one needs a coach who is inspirational, strategically sound, and who possesses excellent communication and inter-personnel skills. (HT Photo)

When a team has allrounders who aren’t treated as such (perhaps because they are not good enough), it stands to reason that the selectors would have done better by picking specialists (batters or bowlers). Playing a specialist wicketkeeper as a batsman despite the presence and availability of enough specialist batters betrays a lack of imagination (even common sense). And what of the spinners? An Indian team being outbatted in India is bad enough, but this team also managed the unique feat of being outspun by the South African spinners who did far better.

A team in transition such as this one needs a coach who is inspirational, strategically sound, and who possesses excellent communication and inter-personnel skills. The wise men who run Indian cricket should ask themselves whether Gambhir does — simply because two home series whitewashes in consecutive years and numbers that show the team has lost half the Tests it played under him suggest otherwise.