Team India battered, bruised & broken.....Complete Whitewash !!!!

21st July to 22nd August 2011…..one month of mayhem for Team India in cricket, as England perfectly utilized home conditions to bludgeon India into submission with a 4-0 whitewash, in a test series which was touted to be the battle of the titans.

The last innings of the series, with India battling to draw the match yesterday, was a perfect example of how India collapsed against a determined & disciplined English attack throughtout the series.

Resuming the day at 129 for 3 with mainstay Dravid already back in the pavillion, and needing another 167 runs to avoid innings defeat, the visitors were looking forward to Sachin for batting out the entire day. The 1st session boosted this confidence, as nighwatchman Amit Mishra put up an ideal foil along with Sachin to defy the English attack, while scoring valuable runs. This was the first & the only session in the entire series, when India had batted without losing a wicket. Just when Indians were beginning to build hope, the perennial collapse was triggered with Mishra’s dismissal. The 144 run stand between the two went waste, as India lost 7 wickets for just 21 runs within the next 15 overs. The whitewash was complete, as India lost by an innings & 8 runs. This was India's worst performance since 1959....

The table below distinctively shows the glaring difference in performance between the two teams :

	England	India
Matches won	4	0
Innings batted	6	8
Teams dismissed	2	8
Aggregate runs	2809	2044
Wickets lost	47	80
Batting average	59.76	25.55
Highest total	710-7d	300
Lowest total	221	158
Most runs	533 (KP Pietersen)	461 (R Dravid)
Highest individual score	294 (AN Cook)	146* (R Dravid)
Centuries	7	3 ( all by Dravid)
Fifties	11	9
0s	4	16
5WI	4	1
Most wickets	25 (SCJ Broad)	15 (Praveen Kumar)
Century stands	10	2

India came to England from West Indies, having won the test series there with a 2nd / 3rd string test side, which according to me built in huge arrogance & overconfidence in the team. As a no 1 test team in the world, under Dhoni’s captaincy, they felt they could handle any situation. There was no planning, no preparation & no strategy on how to handle English conditions. Everyone was talking of Sachin’s 100 century at Lords, & the focus had shifted from strategy to personal milestones. Under the new coaching of Duncan Fletcher & the golden run of Dhoni’s captaincy, progressing from the recent World Cup win in April, India felt secure…..a false sense of security !!!

On the other hand, England had done their homework…..they had planned meticulously. The main players had skipped the IPL to stay fresh & unexposed. They ensured that the pitches suited their bowlers, the batsmen had practiced hard in the county matches & nets & the fielding looked well oiled. Each & every player knew his role & committed wholeheartedly. The reserve bench too was ready to step in. Unlike India, the team was not looking at any individual brilliance or records, but sheer efforts on the field. The English team, throughout the series, batted very very deep, with even tailenders contributing substantially, not allowing Indian bowlers to dominate, but for brief patches. From openers Strauss & Cook to Pieterson, Bell, Morgan, Trott, Prior in the middle order, to Broad, Bresnan, Swann, Anderson bringing up the tail….there was just no respite for the Indian bowlers. Its no wonder that they lost only 47 wickets in the entire series batting six times, while piling up 2809 runs. When they came to bowl, they were disciplined & accurate, giving very little away to the Indian batsmen, scalping 80 wickets, getting the much touted & heavily advertised Indian batting line up all out every single innings, giving away only 2044 runs. Indian innings could not cross 300 runs even a single time. The heavyweights had fallen heavily…..The only Indian who performed against all odds was Rahul Dravid, the silent Wall for Team India over the years. Even at the twilight of his career, Rahul held whatever little semblance of fight India could muster, batting away tirelessly, notching up three superb centuries, all for a losing cause. He silently went on to become the 2nd highest run scorer in tests after Sachin.

India’s cup of woes continued to overflow, as key players kept getting injured at crucial stages of the series, rendering the team toothless. Zaheer, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Gambhir, Praveen Kumar, Sehwag, Ishant, all fell to injuries, as Dhoni, Sachin continued with niggles. Clearly the team management, including the selectors, had not put a proper plan in place. The replacements that were rushed in were woefully out of shape, leave alone form & the result was rubbing further salt to the wound !!! Dhoni’s golden run had stuttered for the first time & real bad……..

While Kevin Pieterson topped the batting charts for England with 533 runs, followed by Ian Bell with 504 runs, Dravid chipped in with 461 runs, followed by Sachin with 273 runs.... Stuart Broad was the Man of the Series picking up 25 wickets & scoring 182 runs, in a wonderful display of alround performance. This is the same bowler, who had been hit for six successive overboundaries by Yuvraj Singh in the T20 World Cup, not very long ago. Shows, what determination & discipline could bring about, as results.

The English team, with this stupendous performance, has not only toppled India to become the new No 1 Test Team, but also pushed India to No 3 slot.......a performance, which England Captain Andrew Strauss along with his team would cherish throughout their lifetime.

Pushed to a corner, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has an uphill task ahead of him. This is his first test series defeat ever as a Captain, & the ignominy of a 4-0 whitewash would certainly rankle him for long. It was not the margin of defeat, but the manner in which the team capitulated, which was shameful & unpardonable.

He has to find a way to resurrect team India for the ODIs ahead & salvage some pride !!!