India’s success so far in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series is a perfect example of getting success on short-term priorities which may not translate into building a solid team for the future. But the question is: what do we want to achieve? Do we want to develop a team which will win only on Indian pitches or do we want to be a team which will win irrespective of conditions?Looking at the Indian squad which played in the last two Tests, it doesn’t seem like we are serious in building a team which will win us series across the world.Meanwhile, Murali Vijay, who got the opportunity to open in place of Gambhir, scored a classy ton in Hyderabad, but given his flashy style of batting he remains a susceptible candidate against the swinging ball outside the off-stump.If batting or spin bowling does not inspire much of a confidence, pace bowling is another aspect which is an area of concern. With Umesh Yadav and Zaheer Khan out with injuries and Ishant Sharma not getting enough wickets to justify his place in the team, the Indian pace bowling suddenly looks bare. Spinners can win you matches in India but outside the sub-continent one definitely needs at least three to four quality pacers to win Tests. Only Uttar Pradesh swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar looked impressive but it’s very early to comment on his future, for we have seen a lot of bowlers in the recent past who fizzled away after initial success at international level.Apart from Cheteshwar Pujara and, to some extent, Virat Kohli, not a single Indian batsman has the required technique to do well on hard and bouncy pitches against a quality pace attack. The way our batsmen struggled against English spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar highlights their technical ineptness even against the turning ball.
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