Ganguly should learn to stay calm

India have a very poor record away from home, especially outside of the subcontinent, but they should have had high hopes of a successful tour of the Caribbean when they arrived in March .The West Indies' form in recent years had been very poor and although better at home, they still had not beaten anyone but Zimbabwe, in Zimbabwe, since 1999 in the Caribbean when they beat the same Zimbabwe and a luckless Pakistan. In the end, they only ended up being victors in the rain-shortened One-Day series by two games to one while losing the Tests by the same margin.

If India were to win the Test series, they needed to get into their stride very early as the venues for the first two Tests were surely going to be their best opportunities. Guyana, as usual, proved to be a batsman’s paradise and once the West Indies won the toss and piled up the runs in the first innings, it was only a matter of batting to save the Test for India. That they managed to do so after getting a pretty ordinary start was commendable. And especially pleasing to all of India must have been the strength of character and will shown by Rahul Dravid, after being hit in the face by a bouncer from Mervyn Dillon. The rains came as usual but by then it was accepted by most that the only result would have been a draw.

India went on to win the next Test in Trinidad, the venue of their most recent previous victory in the Caribbean but not before a few hiccups. Of course, they now had the inclusion of their 'Turbanator', Harbhajan Singh, who missed the previous Test, but he was not as effective as most people thought he would have been and, in fact, would have to be said to be a slight disappointment on the tour. It was here that the captain Sourav Ganguly was really tested, and it is fair to say it was not his handling of the team that enabled them to win.

Ganguly is a captain who is fairly new to the job and so should be given some time to develop. But the first thing he has to learn is that while all hell may be breaking loose around him, he has to maintain some sort of calm and, hopefully, transfer that calm to his team around him. He certainly wasn’t helping his men, and particularly his bowlers, by constantly gesticulating and seemingly arguing with them each time they bowled a ball that wasn’t quite what he was hoping for. Fortunately for him and India, the West Indies capitulated once again on the last day, chasing what should have been an achievable target.

They say bad news is best forgotten quickly, but India certainly doesn’t seem able to overcome the problems they have always had in Barbados the venue for the third Test. All visiting teams know the history of the Kensington Oval pitch. It’s usually the quickest pitch in the Caribbean, challenged only by the Sabina Park pitch in Jamaica. The fast bowling strengths of the Caribbean team is not what it used to be, but that didn’t matter to India. They lost the toss, the West Indies played four fast bowlers, sent them in and that was basically that. Before the Test started, Ganguly stated that the previous poor record of India at Kensington didn’t matter and that they had just won the previous Test so were confident; but it surely didn’t show in their first innings. Bundled out cheaply for 102, they could never recover and their poor record continues.

The pitches around the Caribbean in the different islands are distinctly different in nature but it also depends a lot on the preparation that goes into each surface. There could not have been a greater contrast between the pitch in Antigua and the one for the last Test in Jamaica. While the batsmen had a ball in Antigua, with no team being dismissed throughout the entire Test and a boring draw being the outcome, it was quite obvious there would have been a result in Jamaica. The Antigua pitch was bereft of grass, the Jamaica playing surface was covered with the green stuff like a pitch in the UK at the beginning of the cricket season in early April. The team winning the toss was surely not going to bat first and should have a distinct advantage, but India, having won the toss, bowled poorly.

The West Indies batted well, got over 400 in the first innings and although the Indian bowlers did better in the second, they left themselves too much to do, batting last on a deteriorating pitch and succumbed to some accurate West Indies bowling. They deserved to lose, having been outplayed by the Windies, but they must have been crying in their dinners that night for if the lower order batsmen had applied themselves a bit better and stayed another 15 minutes or so at the crease, the rains that came during the presentation ceremony would have saved the day and they would have gone back home with a drawn series instead of having lost. Considering their away record, that would have been a very good result.

The consolation prize of the One Dayers would take away some of the pain of losing the Test series and I suppose with the World Cup not far away, all teams will be putting a great deal of effort into that form of the game. But most teams, one would think, would swap a Test series win for a limited-overs win any day.

Earlier Columns:
- It would be unwise to have Dravid keeping wickets
- Another opportunity for Lara, Tendulkar
- India should employ a double-edged spin attack at Antigua
- Kumble should play in the rest of the Tests
- The toss will be vital
- India start favourites

- Gameplan

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