Indian cricket is going through tough times.
The current one-day cricket world champions have been hurtling from one loss to another, with the two overseas tours resulting in 4-0 against England and Australia.
India also lost a test series at home against England, for the first time in 30 years.
Their form in the shorter versions of the game has been no better. The team failed to make it to the final four at last year’s ICC T -20 World Cup and lost the just concluded one-day series to Pakistan.
The bane of Indian cricket has been the inability to play on fast pitches and cope with seaming conditions while on overseas tours.
Dearth of bowlers
Despite the need for faster and bouncier pitches at home, flat tracks have replaced traditional dustbowls, thus impeding the growth of young spinners.
The country, which produced the best spinners in the world, is now suffering from a dearth of quality spin bowlers.
The performances of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh had somewhat hidden the lacuna but with the former retired, and the latter at the crossroads of his career, the poverty of bowlers is now evident.
The fast bowling stocks look depleted too. With premier quickie Zaheer Khan plagued by injury and fast nearing the end of his shelf life, where is his replacement?
Flawed policy
Many new fast bowlers have been tried, but none has proved consistently successful. What is the purpose of having the National Cricket Academy when it is being used more as a place for players to recover from injuries, rather than produce quality cricketers?
Whatever policy India has on ensuring existing fast bowlers are fit and fresh, is obviously flawed, and requires an urgent overhaul.
The selectors are to be blamed also for the current poor form of the team.
With Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman retired and Sachin Tendulkar bidding adieu to the shorter versions of the game, India does not seem to have batsmen to take their positions.
The young batsmen should have been gradually eased into the main side instead of requiring an overhaul of the batting order in one go. There should also be more tours for A Sides and Under 19 teams to prepare them to play under different conditions.
Injuries have been a curse for Indian cricketers in recent years.
Easing pressure
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should ensure proper rest for its main players and not grind them to the ground by making them play all matches.
Players like Captain M S Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir represent the country in all formats of the game. Constant pressures of international cricket makes a player both physically and mentally jaded.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is now an annual feature, in which almost all players participate for the money offered.
BCCI should use its power to create a separate window for the event and schedule a shorter IPL tournament.
A strong Indian cricket team is a necessity for world cricket to grow and be commercially viable.
More important, India needs a stronger board of control.
