A great piece

comparing what has changed in this Indian team here!

You have to read this part.. Exactly my feelings, of course so masterfully written!

 

I’ve missed the Ganguly-inspired ballsiness. I’ve missed the ‘fuck you mode’ that John Wright asked the team to adopt during the 2003 World Cup. I’ve missed the unshakable belief that helped us come back in Headingley, 2002 and Durban, 2010. I’ve missed the spirit that won us the Mohali Test in 2010.

I’ve missed Laxman’s steely side. I’ve missed Tendulkar avatar that shelves shots. I’ve missed Dravid’s over-my-dead-body efforts on a spiked pitch. I have missed the team’s ability to counterpunch. I have missed Sehwag. Which senior player is going to reassure Umesh Yadav with ‘We’ll win in Adelaide’? Does anyone in this team even believe we have a chance?

And herein lies my anguish. This team is making me lose hope in turnarounds, they’re whimpering from one game to another, they’re acting like hesitant, shy schoolboys and walking into well-laid traps. They are showing no inkling to think out of the box. And they are bizarrely surrendering meekly rather than going down swinging. It’s a team I’m not used to. It’s a team that has forgotten how to respond. It’s a team that’s lost its bearings.

I don’t care which eleven Indian players walk out at Adelaide. I don’t even want to suggest who to drop and who to retain. Losing 4-0 isn’t the end of the world (after all, we’ve been there a few months ago). I am not paying any attention to all the speculation about impending retirements.

All I ask for is a sign. All I ask for is more of what Umesh did on the second day at Perth, more of what Kohli did on the third. All I ask for is any sign that tells me that this team is willing to reverse the tide, a sign that shows me that that these players haven’t forgotten the art of fighting the odds, a sign that reassures me that the wheels haven’t completely come off at the end of an ardous journey that began – thanks to many of the same players – a little over a decade ago.