3-0, and why India don't care

MS Dhoni is wrong. Before the Third Test, asked to compare this tour to the recent flop in England, he said, 'You die, you die. You don't see which is the better way to die.'

On the contrary, the way in which a sporting team loses – or 'dies' – is of paramount importance. Followers of any team do not expect their side to win every game, but they demand they give their best effort every time. Unaligned sports watchers are entitled to assume that highly-paid participants are trying maximally.

India has not only been thrashed in the summer so far, but it has accepted the results with apparent nonchalance. The players don't seem to give a (sub-)continental.

As boorish as Brad Haddin's remarks sounded, his accusation that this Indian side disintegrates rapidly when faced with any sort of adversity has been proved true.

Australia's current Test team is not one for the ages; it is a promising combination patched together from relatively experienced state players (Ed Cowan and Shaun Marsh), aged greats (Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey), tyros (Mitchell Starc and Dave Warner) and honest toilers, all steered by an inexperienced skipper. This is the team that should be struggling under pressure, not the all-star Indian side.

When Kim Kardashian came to these shores last November we didn't expect to see a more disappointing tourist for many a long year. Sadly the Indians have filled that role. When they arrived they appealed as a side of battle-hardened legends ready to give Australia a bit of payback for past thrashings on this soil. While it would not be fun to see Australia defeated again, at least local fans would have the privilege of watching some of the finest players of the modern era in action.

If an all-time best Indian XI was to be selected today, at least four members of the current side would be in it: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni. VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan would be considered as well. The presence of so many legends in one team can be a double-edged sword, however, because each seems entitled to go out on his own terms. Consequently you have a side studded with players whose age is more akin to that of parliamentarians than sportsmen.

Even Tendulkar has fallen short of our lofty hopes and expectations. The hoopla about his impending 100th century has been an unwelcome distraction. Lumping together Tests and one-dayers makes the hundred hundreds a statistical curiosity, but it is being treated like a sacred milestone and that has not helped the Little Master or his side.

Sehwag is past his belligerent, brutish best. Dravid is a different case; he never stops trying, but he has been bowled five times out of six dismissals and his reflexes no longer seem sharp enough for the top level. Laxman has not put a sufficiently high price on his wicket, and the bulky rib cushioning that he wore to the wicket in Perth signified a batsman who didn't much want to be there. Ishant Sharma and Zaheer have failed to match their impressive reputations.

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly says that Indian cricket has "taken a huge step backward in the past year". Fellow former captain Sunil Gavaskar says that "what India now need to do very, very quickly is to look forward and not backward. If it unfortunately means that we have to say goodbye to some of the players who have served the country for so long and so wonderfully, that we have to do. Because, if the team is going to get out for 160-odd it's better to do with young players so that they can learn from experience and serve the country better in future rather than with those who have been there, seen it and done that but who are not being able to do it now."

It should not be forgotten that India arrived here after losing the Tests 4-0 in England, dropping the only T20 and failing to win a single one-dayer. When Sharma was sledging Warner early in the Perth Test he allegedly said that Warner should just wait until he came to India and he would have a few problems then. This is precisely the problem with the Indian side, and has been for years: there seems to be a benign acknowledgment that they will win at home and lose abroad, and that this is somehow acceptable.

Instead of heading out for a go-karting session, perhaps the Indians could prepare for the final Test in Adelaide by watching a replay of New Zealand's win against Australia in Hobart earlier this summer. It is doubtful that any current Kiwi player could force his way into the Indian side, but in that match all eleven worked as a team, cared about their performance and dug deep. It is unfortunate that the same cannot be said for this touring side.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of BigPond Sport.