‘Simply nothing worked for us in England’

Thursday, 8 September 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

After the embarrassing 0-4 whitewash in the Test series in England, a lot of questions have been raised about the injury management and functioning of the Indian team. But chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth has defended the performance of the Indian team, saying that despite the best efforts of one and all, everything went wrong for them and there should not be any blame game.

Talking about the reasons behind the epic capitulation, Srikkanth said that it was the batting failure which hurt most. “Sometimes you need to accept that the other team played really well. England played very well in the Test series and let’s not forget they have the best bowling attack, especially for English conditions. Generally, out of our top order batsmen, at least two click almost in every Test and the rest of the batsmen play around them. Unfortunately in England, only Rahul Dravid did well,” he said on Tuesday.

“For me, the main thing was the second Test at Trent Bridge. At 124 for eight on the first day, we could have had got them out for 150. At 267 for four, we should have had a lead of at least 150-200. From there, the pressure would have been on England. We let them off the hook and England’s confidence just grew and psychologically they were up.”

The former India opener said that one shouldn’t run down the players or the selectors just after one series defeat. “We have been doing well for so long. We did well in South Africa with the same players after losing the first Test badly. In England, it just didn’t happen. It was a horrible series, where nothing worked. Whatever we touched, went wrong. It was bad luck, bad cricket, bad everything.”

“You can’t blame selectors for injuries. When we won the World Cup and stayed on top of Test cricket for 20 months, no one questioned us.” When asked about the way Sehwag went in and out of the team, Srikkanth said that Sehwag tried his best but simply couldn’t do it. “Sehwag got injured, got operated and after his stint at the NCA, thought he could play after the doctor gave the all clear. After going to England, he couldn’t.

We should appreciate that he did his best to play as the team needed him.”