For a team that not long ago scaled the summit of world cricket, India’s ODI descent has been anything but subtle. What began as a stutter overseas has turned into a nosedive at home. The loss at Eden Gardens wasn't just a defeat; it was a symptom of systemic regression, another entry in a growing ledger of capitulations. In the space of eight months, India, then, endured eight consecutive Test defeats abroad, a home Test series defeat, and now, most damningly for a reigning world champion, a bilateral ODI series loss on home soil, their first in over three years.
The rot,
once isolated, has spread. And nowhere is it more visible than in their batting
order — once feared, now frail.
The Mirage of a Start, the Collapse That
Followed
India’s
innings began with illusion — a sedate but steady 42-run stand between Gautam
Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. But even in that phase, alarm bells rang. There
were inside edges missing the stumps, half-committed drives flirting with fate,
and a general lack of command over the conditions. Eight of those 42 runs came
off wayward overthrows, not confident strokes. When the unravelling began, it
did so with a vengeance.
From 42 for no loss, India slid to 95 for 5 in a manner as predictable as it was painful. The implosion followed a now-familiar script: tentative footwork, indecisive shot-making, and a top order unable to cope with even moderate lateral movement. Junaid Khan, once again, emerged as the enforcer of India’s demise, conjuring up a brilliant new-ball spell that would have done justice to the greats of the past. His figures — 7-1-18-2 — don’t fully convey the precision and menace he brought with the swinging ball.
Umar Gul,
cerebral and quietly lethal, joined the act, dismissing a nervy Sehwag and then
Yuvraj Singh with a bouncer the latter had no business playing at. Raina,
peppered by short balls and undone by Mohammad Hafeez's subtle offspin, added
to the growing tale of technical brittleness.
And so it
came to rest, once again, on MS Dhoni — the solitary figure who seems to hold
back the tide of humiliation with a calm born of duty, not delusion. With
Ishant Sharma for company, Dhoni refused singles, farmed strike, and managed
occasional boundaries, his expression betraying neither hope nor resignation —
only resolve. He knew the end was coming, but not before he reminded us that in
a crumbling house, there are still beams that hold.
Pakistan: Precision, Then Panic
That India
had even a sliver of a target to pursue was thanks to a mid-innings Pakistani
stutter. For 24 overs, Pakistan were imperious. Nasir Jamshed and Mohammad
Hafeez romped to 141 without loss, picking gaps with ease, especially through
square and midwicket. The pitch seemed benign, the Indian bowlers toothless,
and the crowd listless.
Then came
Ravindra Jadeja.
Introduced
as the spinner who could offer control and variety in Dhoni’s quest to minimise
part-time bowling, Jadeja changed the game with a spell of guile and tempo
disruption. Hafeez’s dismissal — a mistimed sweep that ballooned into oblivion
— initiated Pakistan’s tailspin. Jadeja returned to claim Jamshed, who had by
then grafted his way to a third straight century against India, and Kamran Akmal
in the same over. The Eden crowd, long silenced, roared with revivalist belief.
India, to
their credit, bowled with intensity and intelligence in the latter stages.
Ishant was stingy, Ashwin accurate, and Jadeja electric. A middle-order choke,
a tactical field from Dhoni that placed slips and short covers deep into the
innings, and moments of opportunistic brilliance — such as the run-out of Azhar
Ali and the stumping of Jamshed — culminated in a collapse few had foreseen.
From 141 for 0, Pakistan lost all ten wickets for just 109 runs. The final
tally of 250 was respectable, but far from commanding.
Yet, in
hindsight, it was more than enough.
A Fragile Batting Order of India
What stood
out most in this loss, as in Chennai before it, was not just India’s
inability to chase a modest total, but the absence of application, character,
and adaptation among the top order. It is now a recurring pattern: Gambhir’s
diminishing returns, Sehwag’s stubborn decline, Kohli’s momentary lapses in
pressure situations, and Yuvraj’s tentativeness against pace. The new
generation of Indian batting, once expected to dominate the post-Tendulkar era,
now resembles a house of cards waiting to collapse in every second innings.
That
Pakistan should be the side to deliver such a blow is fitting. They are, aside
from Australia, the only team to have repeatedly broken Indian hearts on home
soil in the past decade. Their record at Eden is now a pristine 4-0 in ODIs — a
stadium where they seem to summon their most clinical selves.
And Yet, Only Dhoni Remains
As the dust
settles on another defeat, one figure continues to stand unbowed — Mahendra
Singh Dhoni. He now carries the team not just on the field, but symbolically,
emotionally, and structurally. With the bat, he alone seems willing to suffer,
to fight. In the field, he thinks several steps ahead, adjusting fields when
bowlers look lost. But even titans can only do so much when the battalion
crumbles before the battle truly begins.
India’s
fall is no longer a phase. It is a trendline, steep and unrelenting. The 2011
World Cup glow has long faded. The team that once hunted targets with arrogance
and flair now dies a death of repeated familiarities — exposed techniques,
brittle temperaments, and an overreliance on one man who knows the collapse is
coming but still marches into it, bat in hand.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
