The Indian cricket team has been on the end of disastrous tours more than they have won “revenge” matches in the past. It is no hidden fact that Indian batsmen have never relished the rising ball for most of cricket’s history. Not enough to play many conventional cricketing strokes, anyway.

Of course, cricket has constantly reminded us batting is not all about perfect bio-mechanics. That would defeat the very joy of watching a Sehwag destroy the opposition or the pure hysteria when a dashing young batsman from the Caribbean sets the world on fire. And in that regard, India has never been short on talent. Yet, they haven’t come back from most trips with anything more than experience and concern.

We can still give the batsmen a bit of a long rope, however, for it’s never easy to adjust to booming pace, bouncy tracks and intimidating crowds. And in Indian cricket, the allowance for failure is so marginal that only the lucky ones get more than two overseas tours in their careers.

What of the bowlers, then? Surely, there’s no excuse for a fast bowler in conditions that are so well advertised by his batting team-mates?

Yes, in the past, India has been short of any real fast bowling legends. Yes, till about a year ago, India has not produced bowlers who can even, once every while, bowl at 140 kmph. Yes, in the past it was a Bedi or a Shastri or a Kumble who was still expected to take a fifer on green tops. The Indian team of now, however, does not have any such problem in terms of resources.

So where does one look for an explanation to the absolute mockery of the Indian Test team by England and, potentially, Australia? I’d start with body language.

It may be a little harsh to say but a lot of India’s young players have shown two different avatars. For one, some of the players are supermen back home. They treat the domestic opposition with disdain, set the IPL on fire and play charismatic, inspirational speakers on the sports day of every school in their town. Yet when they are unable to whack every ball out of the square on a Johannesburg or Melbourne wicket, they turn understudy to that old fellow called pressure; and suddenly, everything around them is greater than the game.

How many times have we seen stories about “Australia back to their old ways” or racism remarks – in the recent past – come up in the middle of a disastrous series? And how many times have we seen these glamour dolls of Indian cricket make press statements of tremendous magnitude, only to return to the same state of morbidity on the field? Far too many times for a team that was supposed to be knocking on Test championship status. When you see a player face off with the opposition when the team is seven wickets down and chasing a draw, or flashing a gesture when the team is trailing by three times what they had scored, it only talks about the state of the game back home; and the Indian team reflects, perfectly, the state of the game in India. The board is run by politicians, most state associations are headed by businessmen and ex-cricketers only want to opine on mediocre TV channels. Moreover, the only real emergence of promising players is based on IPL performance. And to top all that off is the nuisance that we, the fans, can sometimes become.(Really guys, a coach and his captain are only as good as his team.)

To put the spider in the web, the problem with the current team does not stem from diminutive technical ability, shortage of talent or exhaustion of resources. It is a residue of inconsistency, absence of character and aggression – and the lack of understanding that aggression does not refer to the length and slope of your middle finger.

Also, it wouldn’t be bad if some of these players started looking like sportsmen.

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