London: In order to remove this bias towards the home team in Test cricket — in this decade the hosts have won 68 Test series, the visitors 40 — the International Cricket Council could have been more ambitious at its latest annual general meeting in Dublin a month ago.
“The visiting team should be provided with an opportunity to prepare for upcoming international matches under similar conditions to those they will play in during the series, including the same standard and variety of net bowlers and training pitches,” the ICC announced. This has to be spelt out because the age of chivalry in cricket has passed, and every host country gains whatever advantage it can.
What the ICC ought to have done is decree that every touring team should play two first-class matches before their Test series, otherwise the ICC would not recognise them as Tests. That would stop so many series being all but decided when under-prepared visitors are blown away in the first Test — not to mention being the best way to generate public interest in the forthcoming series.
The first Test series determined by the visitors’ lack of preparation was the West Indian tour of Australia in 1951-52. West Indies had one first-class match before what was billed as “the unofficial championship of the world” and which turned out to be an anti-climax. The three Ws, who had lit up England in 1950 — Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott and Everton Weekes — made one Test century in the five Tests.
India are now setting new heights, or, rather, depths. They are the No 1 country in the Test rankings — and in disregarding preparation. No team touring England for five Tests have ever arranged so little red-ball practice before and during the series as this Indian party. They deemed one three-day game of 18-a-side against Essex to be sufficient for adjusting to local conditions, balls and pitches, although they had a fortnight available between the last One Day International and the first Test; and they will have no more practice games at all now the Tests have begun.
In 2014, like this summer, India played no practice game after the five-Test series had started, but they had two three-day games against counties before the series. The Australian parties of 2013 and 2015 both played two games against counties during the series.
The options for the tourists are drastically limited by straitjacket schedules. The batsman out of form at the start of a series has nowhere to go and find it or make technical adjustments. The reserve batsman has no chance to present his case: if he is brought in then it will be on the basis of nothing but nets.
The injured bowler has nowhere to go for the spells he needs to become match-fit again. The chances of the visiting side are much reduced, while the host country have players on tap.
The 2014 series was turned into a procession, after England had squared it at 1-1 in the third Test. India’s batting disintegrated on a bouncy pitch at Old Trafford and a very grassy one at the Oval, none of the touring batsmen reaching 50 except the captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, twice.
That lesson could have been absorbed by the Indian board and management, but no. The first three Tests of this series are coming in a rush, but there is a week’s break between the third and fourth Tests: time for a weekend playing against Northamptonshire or Leicestershire.
England will, therefore, want live grass left on the Lord’s pitch so that India’s batsmen keep going hard at the ball and edging it. Apart from Virat Kohli with his 200 runs, no Indian batsman totalled 40 in the first Test except all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Aside from Kohli, and extras, India’s batsmen scored 105 runs in their first innings at Edgbaston and 109 in their second.
Shikhar Dhawan is a devastating opening batsman on Asian pitches, not simply averaging 61 with his cavalier strokeplay but scoring at 75 per 100 balls; outside Asia he averages 24. On India’s previous tour in 2014 he was dropped after three Tests, and his out-of-form replacement, Gautam Gambhir, fared even worse. On this tour India’s reserve opener, Cheteshwar Pujara, averages 65 in Asia and 27 outside.
The cat is out of the bag — and Kohli, after being dropped by Dawid Malan when 21, grew into a lion. The kittens are still inside, and some seem sure to stay there.
