Mistakes India Cannot Afford To Make In England

Having last won a Test overseas over three years back, expectations are sky high from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Co. to deliver in England. India are playing a five-Test series after a gap of 17 long years and the nearly six-week long Test tour will challenge the mettle of this young Indian side. For the visitors, though, there is a lot to ponder before they take the field next Wednesday at Trent Bridge.

India need not look too far back in time in order to not repeat certain mistakes they have been guilty of committing, especially overseas. It was for the first time in two decades that India were humbled by a 4-0 series loss, when Dhoni and his men came a cropper against Andrew Strauss' Three Lions in 2011 and lost their No. 1 ranking.

In order to move over the horrid past of their last Test tour of England, India will have to come face to face with few of the traditional problems they have been facing on overseas tours. Here, we broadly look at the mistakes that India cannot afford to make this time around.

Defensive batting

One of the reasons why the famed Indian middle-order trio of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were so successful in scoring big runs was due to the explosive batting of Virender Sehwag at the top. If Sehwag would fail, the scoring-rate invariably dipped and the batsmen tended to go into a shell, giving the opposition bowlers loads of chances to apply the pressure. This tendency among the Indian batsmen continues even today. Plus, against experienced operators like James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who are well acquainted with the weaknesses of the touring batsmen, the Indians will have to be one step ahead. This is where the Murali Vijays, Gautam Gambhirs and Cheteshwar Pujaras will have to back free-flowing strokemakers like Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and, later on, Dhoni.

On the 2011 tour, the Indians managed to reach a score of 300 or more only once in eight innings. That never really made matters easy for their bowlers. This time around, the top and middle-order batsmen will have to ensure that one of the top four bats till the time the second new-ball is taken so that there isn't undue pressure on Nos. 5, 6 and 7.

Where are the wicket-takers?

Indian bowlers have been guilty of not being able to take 20 wickets to win a Test match. In the last 12 overseas Tests, oppositions have been bowled out just 10 times out of the 20 innings by India. This is primarily due to the absence of a strike bowler that can run through the opposition. Barring an odd spell, either by Zaheer Khan or Ishant Sharma, the Indian bowlers do not pose a stiff challenge for any batting opponent. This fact got further strengthened when the Indians were unable to bowl out oppositions in the two warm-up matches at Leicester and Derby. There will be extra pressure on the Indian seamers to get the best out of the surfaces. Spin bowlers too will have to be handled as wicket-taking options as over-reliance on pace has never been India's strength.

Take your catches

One of the areas that the Indian Test side has struggled with off late is their close-in catching. The retirements of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in the last couple of years have made India's slip catching poorer. Virat Kohli does not seem like a natural slip fielder but yet he is persisted with in the cordon. Recent overseas series losses in New Zealand and South Africa were testimony to the fact that dropped catches headlined India's woes on the field. For example, a couple of chances not taken by Indian fieldsmen saw Brendon McCullum post a record 302 that knocked India out of the last Test they played in February. Fielding coach Trevor Penney knows this and would be working overtime with the players to improve their overall catching technique.

Getting the selection right

A gap of almost four months since India last played a Test match and a host of limited-overs games, especially Twenty20s (World T20 and IPL) gives Dhoni extra options of making cosmetic changes to the side. One such change should be the choice of lone spin bowler. Ravindra Jadeja has been chosen over leading spinner R Ashwin for the last three Tests that India have played. For a bowler of Ashwin's capabilities and repertoire, it is quite unfortunate that he hasn't featured in the Test XI. Jadeja had two poor outings against the Kiwis earlier this year, when he just took three wickets at an average of 85.66. Jadeja does contribute with the bat lower down the order but so does India's highest-ranked Test bowler, Ashwin. Dhoni must include Ashwin in the playing XI for the Nottingham Test, especially after the spinner voiced that he was making an effort to be aggressive in England. However, Dhoni's reluctance to give Ashwin an extended run in the two warm-up ties may yet again prove a deterrent for the tall offspinner.

Regarding his own captaincy, Dhoni has shown tendency to be less proactive at times, even lacking ruthlessness that is required to close out games after reaching positions of strength. Needless to say, he will have to be at his best or else it would give his detractors more material to sharpen their knives with.