Questions loom over Team India

India, which dominated international cricket across formats for a decade, has slumped to a dispiriting low in Test cricket. The crushing 3-1 defeat in Australia, coming on the heels of an unprecedented 3-0 home series whitewash by New Zealand, has led to a slew of questions about the future of a team that was until recently regarded as invincible.

The worries are compounded by the sharp decline in form and consistency of the team’s two batting mainstays, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the indifferent showing by Ravindra Jadeja with the bat and ball in Australia, and the sudden mid-series retirement from international cricket of Ravichandran Ashwin. The nucleus of the team seems to have collapsed.    Is there a way out of the crisis? Coach Gautam Gambhir has not delivered the goods. Team selection in Australia was found wanting. The support staff did not step up to stem the rot as the players struggled to deal with the challenges posed by Team Australia.

India is a team in transition. Any Test squad making the shift from a period of sustained dominance to a phase of rebuilding inevitably faces daunting problems. It happened to Clive Lloyd’s mighty West Indies a few decades ago. They Caribbean islands have yet to emerge from the decline. Australia cricket, too, has faced low points in its history as a result of legends of the sport hanging up their boots in a bunch. To their credit, the Aussies have worked their way around the predicament on more than one occasion.

Does the Indian cricketing system have it in it to put the recent reverses behind it and move on? Fans on the subcontinent can take some heart from history. In 2011, immediately after winning the ODI World Cup, India suffered humiliating Test series whitewashes by England and Australia.

Knives were out but in the months that followed after the twin debacles, doubts were put to rest thanks to a group of young cricketers who guided India out of the gloom. Among these players, besides Kohli, Sharma Jadeja and Ashwin, were Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, two technically sound batters in the classic Test match mould.

Three years on from the launch of the Indian Premier League, India had players who took to the demands of Test cricket without having to make too many adjustments in technique and temperament. But over a decade later, the cricket-crazy nation, despite possessing a large pool of talented young cricketers, will need to identify players for the grind of Test cricket, which calls for not just basic ability but also tenacity, an attribute that went missing on the Australian tour.

In Australia, India not only lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which it held for a decade but also failed to make it to the World Test Championship (WTC) final after two consecutive appearances in 2021 and 2023.  To put India’s woes in perspective, Rohit Sharma’s boys have lost six of the last eight Tests with both the captain and Kohli floundering big time. India’s next challenge is a five-Test away series against England, where they haven’t won since 2007. England has always been a difficult frontier for India.   Besides 2007, India won a series there on only two occasions – in 1971, when they pipped England 1-0 under Ajit Wadekar’s captaincy, and in 1986, when India, led by Kapil Dev, registered a 2-0 triumph.

As things stand, a repeat appears only a distant possibility. The only Indian batter who did his reputation no harm in Australia was 23-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal. Nitish Kumar Reddy, 21, gave a good account of himself but his performance dipped in the final Test in Melbourne. Keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, a maverick with the ability to turn a match on its head, flattered to deceive.

Opening bat Subhman Gill is regarded as a classy player but his overseas record has been less than satisfactory. While it may not be time yet to discard him from India’s plans going forward, the selectors would have to take a long hard look at the opening slots, especially because K.L. Rahul, whose Test average is in the mid-30s, which is hardly ideal for a batter at the top of the order.  

In Australia, India relied way too heavily on the incredible Jasprit Bumrah, who kept the Aussies on their toes all through the series. But by the end of the Melbourne Test, it became clear that it was imperative to put a workload management plan in place for the speedster. Without Bumrah, the Indian bowling attack in the second innings of the final Test was low on sting.

On the fast-bowling front, the future looks bright. Once Mohammad Shami returns to the fold, he, Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj could form a formidable pace trio that on its day can blow away any batting lineup. The bench strength in this department isn’t negligible either.

It is India’s spin attack that might look somewhat bedraggled in Ashwin’s absence and Jadeja’s lack of bite. A wrist spinner like Kuldeep Yadav, who often receives the rough end of the stick from the selectors, may have made a difference not only on the spicy Melbourne track but also in the rest of the series.

Kuldeep is 30 and has several years of cricket left in him. He could be the answer to India’s spin bowling questions, at least in the short term.  Washington Sundar, who is a handy bat, showed promise in Australia. Young spinners like Ravi Bishnoi and Tanush Kotian, who joined the squad Down Under after the series got underway as replacement for Ashwin, deserve a bit of a run before a call is taken on their future.

This year will make or break the Indian Test team. There is no lack of talent in domestic cricket, which is where Kohli and Sharma might have to return to iron out the creases in their batting. But the former is 36 and the latter turns 38 in April. The end of their international careers is nigh.  The future, uncertain but certainly not bleak, is upon India. There is definitely a case for bringing in shorter-format specialists like Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson to plug the gaps in the Test team.