Indian batting searching for form

Pressure cuts both ways, it motivates a person or can overwhelm him. To regain form players must choose option two, writes Amrit Mathur.

On a lazy, sunlit afternoon, London's Covent Garden was buzzing: The bars were packed, tourists browsed through stalls that spring up on weekends. Caricature artists made portraits (25 pounds for black and white, 40 for colour) and various professional street artists entertained the circulating throng.

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But among all this revelry there was a group of gents engaged in a serious discussion. In Peter and Judy (the world famous pub established in 1787), die-hard cricket lovers debated the reasons for India's recent slump, their ability to articulate thoughts aided considerably by the copious quantities of liquids consumed.

The question troubling them: Why has India's batting form nose-dived recently, like MIGs do in India?

Various opinions were tossed up. Some thought cricketers were suffering from the peaking syndrome, where after a careful — and short — build up, players slide back to normal levels. Athletes use this cycle while training for important meets but golfers and tennis players, who play round the year, have mastered the more difficult art of peaking constantly and maintaining high standards.

So, did our players peak in Pakistan? Not really, said someone who felt performance slumps are difficult to explain and it is common for a player to middle everything one day and fail to connect a ball the next morning. Cricket, said another, is both puzzling. Failure is nerve-wrecking and shattering, when form disappears even a top player wonders where his next run is going to come from.