Yes, technically the indian batsmen may be found lacking in those conditions, same as the Sri Lankans do, and to a lesser extent the Pakistanis.
Strangely enough, the Pakistani's have been more undone by spin against Australia...........weird.
Interesting point you make there, when Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Agarkar were on the scene, Indians looked refreshed then as well. I said that the younger players are not burdened with a sense of under-achievement and pressure to perform. Does the syndrome just pick on them as well? or is it a more fundamental problem ? India has performed badly on tracks that are not bouncy......
What do you think is the reason for this flash in the pan thing ?
Technically; heavy bats. It's rare for any of the Aussies to use a bat heavier than 2lbs 8oz (I think Mark Waugh may be the exception here). Plus, the Aussies tend to adjust which bats they use depending ont the conditions. Viv Richards used to do the same.
The Indian players use these absolutely beautiful bats with magnificent curves in the ends of them but they are just far too heavy. Sachin can wield his pretty well (amazing considering he's not tall and uses a 3lbs bat) in any conditions but the heavier bats can cause someone with less strong wrists to angle the bat, hence lots of catches behind in conjunction with the low hands. This can cause a player to close the face of the bat and edge a ball to close-in fielders. So I'd suggest lighter bats. The decrease in power would be marginal and hey, Andrew Symonds uses a toothpick but no-one can say he doesn't hit the ball HARD.
The problem (still in technical terms) is what shots some of the Indian players tend to sweat on. Anything which they can play in the arc between point or gully and mid-off or cover, they will. This is partly due to the heavier bats and partly due to the style of pitch they're used to. Slow and low means that for any balls to be hit square of the wicket, you need straong play in that arc. Mohammed Azharuddin was a master at it and so is Rahul Dravid. Laxman's most powerful shots are in that region, though he can pull pretty well too.
But really the main technical problem is the low hands and playing too much at the line of the ball rather than at the movement off the pitch.
Another facet to the problem may be attitudinal. It requires a different mindset and the ability to switch to a different array of shots when the conditions are different. For example, on bouncy wickets, look to leave the ball a lot, NEVER drive on the up (Indian players do this a lot - slow, low pitches once again) and look to cut rather than drive square off the backfoot.
On slow wickets, you basically put the cut shot away, look to get on the front-foot as much as possible and look for those shots you can rock back onto the back-foot and wait to time it through point or cover because on slow wickets, you must wait for the ball a lot more.
Maybe the Indian players are not willing to compromise their pet shots. Who knows? All I know is what I see and what I see are glaring technical faults in defense especially which are the direct result of playing on slow pitches and them not being able to adjust.
So far, Only guys like Sachin are able to adjust their game to suit the conditions. Also, he has a pretty remarkable eye so that if he goes for a back-foot drive and the ball bounces a little more, he can adjust - the mark of a seriously good player.
I can tell you now though, that there are very few all-wicket players anymore. Sachin is one; Steve Waugh is another; Gary Kirsten; Inzy and that's about it. So Indian's aren't alone in their ability (of lack of) to play in different conditions than they're used to.
[Edited on 26/9/2002 by Top_Cat]
