All conditions and no performance, make India a dull Test side

Dhoni demanded a spinner-friendly track at Mumbai, his wish was granted and India suffered a humiliating loss. If stats are to be believed, Kolkata was India's favourite hunting ground until 12 days later, where a good 'result-oriented' pitch at Eden Gardens produced an identical outcome; giving India their first defeat at the venue in over 12 years. All of a sudden, a series which favoured the hosts now sees them standing at the threshold of a series defeat at home (the first time in eight years).

Prior to the series, India held the advantage due to the home conditions and now the same has led to their player's demise. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann looked like picking up wickets every second over whereas Indian spinners getting a wicket was considered nothing less than a herculean task. Alastair Cook has more than 500 runs in the series with one match to go. This is more than Gambhir, Sachin, Kohli, and Dhoni combined. England infact, seem to make the better of the so called 'advantage' given to the hosts.

Over the years, all teams including India and England have gone ahead and prepared pitches suiting the host nation. This, in the past has come under criticism and scrutiny but Test Cricket being the beauty that it is has changed that little edge that is given to the hosts, especially these two teams. England regained the Ashes in 2010-11 in Australia with a convincing series win whereas India, if you include the last year and a half have gone onto if not win, then put up awe-inspiring performances in Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa. Clearly, the favourable conditions have slowly and steadily started to become a myth.

No one could have expected India and England to win outside their respective territories say around a decade ago. Everyone remembers the 2001 Australia's tour of India where the Indian team tamed the 'Invincible' Aussies. Likewise, England too recaptured the Ashes after 18 years. That series still remains, if not the best then definitely one of the all-time greats. But as modern-day cricket began to hog the limelight, ruthlessness followed. A Ganguly led India started winning matches abroad and England, under Strauss achieved historic feats outside the Queen's land.

So how much of an edge does a familiar territory holds weight today? If the recent high-profiles series are to be believed, then the answer is clearly stacked against the favour. The South Africans did it without breaking a sweat against England and Australia and now India is all set to follow the trend set by the latter two. A side that ruled the Test rankings around 18 months back is now looking fragile against a department that was once their strength. It was tough seeing the Indian batters falling prey to spin bowling, much less in their own backyard. There have been exceptional cases such as the one with Ajantha Mendis in 2008 but once his mystery was solved, he too was bread and butter for the Indians. Indian batting had dominated the spinners all over the world and today is falling like a pack of nine-pins.

I have seen countless occasions where India went down in the series, only to come back and if not win, put up admirable performances and level it. Perth 2008 and Durban 2010 is fresh in everyone's mind, two top quality teams and venues, which brought out the A-game in the Indian team. Perth provides chin music and Durban produces vicious swing. If those were tough meets, then Mumbai and Kolkata is Eleish Maach served to a Bengali. India have always managed to salvage pride till the debacle in England last year.

The focus now shifts to the players and their level of performance. Heaps and heaps of runs are scored in domestic season. This season there were a combined 11 and 13 centuries on day 1 and 2 of the Ranji season. With the void left in the Indian batting, youngsters have cut-throat competition to deal with. Technicians like Dravid and Laxman aren't replaceable, which is clearly evident by the way Kohli and Yuvraj Singh are getting dismissed. Inability to play long innings and giving away wickets to full-tosses and lobbying catches is not a sign of a dominant Test side. If this is the situation in home turfs then let us all get ready to see these batsmen dance like puppets when India tours South Africa in the fall of 2013.

Mumbai Test's second innings saw Panesar rip through the Indian batting order. Given that the pitch was indeed coming off, still a scorecard of seven for 110 at one stage followed by another six for 122 at Kolkata are clear signs of batsmen not performing to their potential. Virat Kohli made bold statements about giving back England a taste of their own medicine but I guess the side-effects were plenty and Virat decided to let the pitch bat for him. A constant collapse in the batting order and the inability to string in partnerships is indication that the current crop of players need to improve drastically. Pitches and home conditions alone, won’t win them games.

Rahul Dravid's recent comments about the lack of talent in the current players might just have been a bit harsh. Dravid himself took time and with experience, became one of India's best bets of all times. But one can't help but think about the hammering in England and Australia, what a couple of disastrous series have led Indian cricket to. Retirements of Dravid and Laxman happened one after the other, but at what cost. All the 'hype' which was created over the younger players not getting opportunities, was it only a medium to see what drawbacks do our batsmen have against quality Test bowling. Not one seems promising enough to fight or gut their way out of a predicament. How many of us can see the current players fight out an innings like Ganguly's 87 against the likes of Paul Harris and South Africa on a dusty, cracked up and deteriorating pitch at Kanpur in 2010.

A lot have been said about the perks that a home side has during a Test series over the years. But all the series that have actually paid dividend when the 11 individuals have put up gutsy performances against top-quality players. When Muralitharan picked up his 800th wicket against India in Sri Lanka, he didn't just throw the ball and waited for the cracks to help him fetch wickets, when Harbhajan got a hat-trick against the mighty Aussies in 2001 he did it with after constantly troubling the batsmen around the middle-off line. And when England won the much-famous 2005 Ashes, Andrew Flintoff's all-round performance along with Jones' and Harmison's impeccable reverse swing contributed in creating history. Thorough performances and standing up to the occasion are the real ingredients, whereas conditions are only catalysts.