LONDON: As the first leg of
this alarmingly disastrous tour
grinds towards an end, the
Indian team has only one
thing left to fight for: pride.
Nearly everything else has already been lost, including
the taken-for-granted number
one ranking. Worse, it has been exposed on
all key fronts: batting,
bowling, fielding and the
biggest spoiler in modern
sport: preparation. England,
on the other hand, steadily became superior in each
aspect; more importantly,
they were clearly much better
prepared: physically, mentally
and tactically. Even on Tuesday, as they had
their first training session as
the new kings, you could see
the spring in their walk, the
joy in their bonhomie. India,
meanwhile, looked beaten and jaded. But then, that's the
difference between a
sensational victory and a
sound thrashing. India's biggest task, two days
before the fourth and final
Test here at the Oval, is to at
least get their spirits, if not
combination, right. At the
moment, there is a big hole in the lower middle order and
the bowling looks devastated,
if not completely clueless or
toothless. Virender Sehwag has arrived but riding on a king pair; he
has not given any kind of
impetus to the batting which
was sorely missing even in his
absence. If he can somehow
spend some time at the crease, it will put some pressure back
on England's bowlers. More
importantly, it will change the
outlook within the team and
also give some respite to the
harried middle order. The big question of the day, though,
was if Suresh Raina would be up to the challenge. After a
bright start, he has slowly
drowned in the gloom
around. Attacked by a
barrage of short-pitched
deliveries, he has withdrawn into a defensive mould. Should he be persisted with?
Will another Test help his
confidence? Or will it make
him even more vulnerable?
India have two options
before them: Abhinav Mukund or Virat Kohli. The
former, who scored a century
in the Northampton game,
might just be a little more
sure of himself than Raina;
Kohli is a young talent too but he wouldn't have forgotten
his own trauma in West
Indies. Praveen skips practice Either ways, it is going to be a
gamble; if the number six is
the key problem, India are
already in big trouble. But
bigger trouble is coming at
them from other sides too. Praveen Kumar, who has been
the pick of the bowlers, didn't
turn up for practice. He had taken a nasty blow on
his wrist in the third Test; and
the team management
confirmed that he is racing
against time. S Sreesanth, who
started so smoothly in the second Test, has also lost his
verve. Ishant Sharma too is
only managing small bursts of
enthusiasm and precision. Captain MS Dhoni might be tempted to bring in the left-
arm pace of RP Singh into the
equation; he also has the
choice of turning to Munaf
Patel, who can extract some
bounce when in the mood, or simply stick to a nagging line
and length. India are usually
dangerous when they are
pushed into a corner; but they
also tend to self-destruct
when everything already seems lost. They somehow
need to dig out that last sliver
of pride to make a match of
this.