India’s Test losses: a result of stereotypes and the quest for balance
A harsh summer, scorching at 30 degrees by English standards, may be sweeping across the British Isles but India failed to turn on the heat in the recently concluded World Test Championship final at London’s Oval. The tepid performance and Australia’s resultant 209-run triumph again dished out an Indian tale of being ‘so near and yet so far’ from a coveted piece of ICC silverware.The defeatist tropes were at play yet again ranging from the insensitive ‘tigers at home, lambs abroad’ dirge on social-media to genuine queries about team-composition, decision-making and batting meltdowns. England, even in summer, can be an amalgam of warm sun, low-slung clouds, hint of rain and perhaps those odd streaks of a nip in the air. Still as a combine they cannot be reasons to bench wily spinner R. A...