Two defeats in two matches against the hosts, that too from positions from which most teams expect to win, and two unconvincing victories against a bunch of men who were supposed to be there just to make up the numbers - but the knives are not yet out for Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid. In a country where one defeat triggers a hundred editorials and a thousand debates, when was the last time one has had such a situation?
No, it is not that the country has stopped expecting the moon from its team. It is not even that cricket lovers have turned magnanimous overnight and decided that the captain and the coach, both new to the job, need to be handled with kid gloves. It is just that India have looked sharp on the field, been good enough to suggest that better things may be round the corner.
India, during Wright's last few months in office, looked deflated, lacking in spirit and drained of ideas, and the worst part of it was that there did not look to be an earnest effort to arrest the slide, to address weaknesses that had been travelling with the team for quite some time. Defeats were met with mild shrugs and by the time the ODI series against Pakistan reached the home stretch, there was only one team in the contest.
Without a doubt, there is a change in attitude. Ideas no longer remain in the dressing room. Players are being gradually coaxed out of their comfort zones and the message has already gone out, in just the first few days of the season, that reputation, however big it is, does not guarantee a permanent place in the line up. Some would argue that the experiments, which have made a mess of the established batting line up India has had, have been a little too reckless, but if Greg feels that there is more that can be squeezed out of the team, and if he thinks that is the way to go, who are we to argue?
{{/usCountry}}Without a doubt, there is a change in attitude. Ideas no longer remain in the dressing room. Players are being gradually coaxed out of their comfort zones and the message has already gone out, in just the first few days of the season, that reputation, however big it is, does not guarantee a permanent place in the line up. Some would argue that the experiments, which have made a mess of the established batting line up India has had, have been a little too reckless, but if Greg feels that there is more that can be squeezed out of the team, and if he thinks that is the way to go, who are we to argue?
{{/usCountry}}Sunil Gavaskar, in his book Sunny Days, recounts how Greg, in an Australia vs Rest of the World match in the early Seventies, once gave a mouthful to Dennis Lillee who got out to leave him stranded on 197, three runs short of a double century which would have earned him a special prize of 500 dollars. Asked at the end of the day if he had vented his frustration at Lillee because he had missed the prize, Greg replied, "Hell, no! I just wanted him to be rearing mad to get at you boys when he bowled."
That was over 30 years ago. The mind, if anything, would have only grown sharper. It is not a blind man gambling - there is more than a bit of thought going into every tactical surprise Greg has sprung during the course of the tri series.
It is not hard to see why the Australian is trying new things. Indian prayers for a quality all-rounder - hoping for a Andrew Flintoff would be getting too greedy but surely, there has to be at least an Abdur Razzaq in the making somewhere - are yet to be answered, and Greg knows that the strategy of fitting the team with seven batsmen and sneaking in ten overs from one or two of the main batsmen is fraught with too much of risk.
Sehwag, the man Sourav used to turn to most often as one half of the fifth bowling option, has taken 27 wickets in his last 50 ODIs at an average of 38.59, with an economy rate that is comfortably over five. Sachin, the other option, has 30 wickets, each costing a little over 30 runs each. Both are capable of breaking partnerships, of bowling a great over or two along the way, but decent spells day in and out, especially with the batsmen looking to go after them, are a little beyond them.
Of the last fifty ODIs it has played, India has lost more than it has won, and more than a few of the defeats have been due to the lack of a decent fifth bowler. Common sense and statistics dictate that the search has to continue, and that is why Jai Prakash Yadav, one of the many hardworking but unfashionable cricketers who were out of favour during Sourav's days at the helm, is back in circulation.
Not many teams win ODIs with just two good fielders out of eleven, and that is one of the reasons why the coach's eyes fell on young Suresh Raina during the conditioning camp in Bangalore. He is yet to show the world what he can do with a bat in hand, but the team's fielding goes up a few notches when he is in the field and one would be very surprised if he is not given time to settle down in the big league. Greg and Dravid, men of strong convictions, have been talking about the need to look at the larger picture and there is nothing to suggest that a few setbacks will change the way they think.
There is enough talent in the team, and as many big names as you would like, but there still is a fair distance to be travelled, more than a few questions to be addressed, and what one is seeing now is a honest attempt to find answers. The sincerity of it all comes through, and perhaps, that is why the nation is willing to wait.
The results may not make it very obvious, but a few steps have been taken, and it is in the right direction.