One team is No 1 in the ODI rankings, while the other is fifth. The top-ranked side won the World Cup in April 2011 and the Champions Trophy – featuring the top eight sides – last June. The team stuck in mid-table have tended to crumble at the first sign of pressure in global tournaments.
Yet, if you watched India and South Africa play the first two one-day internationals of their series in Johannesburg and Durban, you’d be forgiven your confusion as to which was the best team in the world. Routed by 141 runs at the Wanderers, India did little better at Kingsmead, with another top-order implosion ruining any chance of chasing down 281.
With the World Cup less than 18 months away, such a fragile performance in conditions similar to what they will find in Australasia was a rude wake-up call for an Indian side that had enjoyed a spectacular year in 50-over cricket.
After going unbeaten through the Champions Trophy in England, hopes were high that a young side could adapt to South African conditions.
In 25 bilateral ODIs on South African soil dating back to 1992, India had won just five. These two crushing defeats suggested that little had changed. MS Dhoni’s 65 at the Wanderers was the only Indian score over 40, while the bowlers gave away 358 and 280 in conditions far more amenable than those back home.
Despite the failures here, the likes of Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have enough credit to feel secure. The same can’t be said for men like Yuvraj Singh, who missed the Kingsmead defeat with back spasms, and Suresh Raina, whose discomfiture against the short ball was evident even on placid home pitches against Mitchell Johnson.
Yuvraj was man of the tournament when India won the World Cup in 2011, and he is a hero to many for the manner in which he battled back to play after recovering from cancer a year later. His century and four fifties (he made 362 runs at 90.5) coupled with 15 wickets at 25.13 were the high points of India’s successful campaign, but since his return, there have been few signs of the dominator of old.
In 16 innings, he has managed two half-centuries while averaging 18.53. He has seldom looked fluent, and the diffidence against genuine pace has been marked.
Raina’s post-World Cup figures are decent enough. He averages 35.27 from 63 innings and scores at nearly a run a ball. His problem is the lack of defining scores. Even when he has the time to construct an innings of substance, as at Kingsmead, he rarely goes beyond the cameo. There is also an almost-stubborn insistence on essaying cross-batted strokes against the short ball – shots where he is as skittish as a cat on hot tin roof.
Both men will come under scrutiny if India are blanked 3-0 in South Africa, but their failings are likely to be glossed over given the haplessness of the bowling. On a quick, bouncy pitch at the Wanderers, both Mohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in for pastings, while Umesh Yadav did no better in Durban. Mohammed Shami, who took three wickets in both cases, provided the lone bright spot.
After the euphoria of June, when batting and bowling in sync, this was a welcome reminder that India’s ODI team is very much a work in progress. Young players who have proved to be quick learners in the past will have a lot to take away from these two humiliations.
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