Why foreign teams struggle in India - Know their shortcomings

Written by Pradeep Kalamegam 

Even if you are someone who follow cricket only by reading the morning newspapers, you can easily place a bet that India will win their upcoming home series against West Indies fairly comfortably, even by fielding a second string team. Have you by any chance wondered why even the most consistent international outfits in the past have struggled in adapting to the sub-continent conditions?

Inability to play spin is just one among the numerous reasons for the continued failures of the visiting teams in India. Let me put forward the perennial issue in a simplest way for you all to understand the difficulties of foreign squads in the nation.

 Climatic conditions

One need not be a doctorate in failure analysis to get to know this fact on his own. The diverse climatic conditions of the vast nation is unquestionably a worrying factor for all the touring parties who struggle big time to acclimatize themselves to the testing environment that is a complete contrast to their country of originality.

And being the largest cricketing playing nation means, India provides diverse playing temperatures in different part of Hindustan and it is definitely not easy to settle in.

Huge crowd gathering

Every team love (read need) some fan following that gives some much needed belief to go about the business at hand. Unfortunately the massive home support in India often leaves the visitors embarrassed and were normally left with no more than some scarce followers here and there, in an ocean of blues every time.

The mere thought of playing in front of a packed Eden Gardens (with nearly 100 thousand crazy, devoted fans) might consume some new comers to the country.

Pitch

The one undeniable fact is the all-important 22-yards that will be laid out to aid the Indian spinners and thus no substantial support to bounce & seam. Normally, the sides from outside the subcontinent rely heavily on their pacers to provide the initiatives with the red cherry.

As the strip turns out to be unhelpful to their best bets with the ball, you would normally fancy the mighty Indian batsmen to feast on the offering, won’t you? 

Lack of quality spinners

So what if the quicks cannot bowl those deadly out-swingers and nose-breaking bouncers? If the pitch aids spin, why not use the same, one may argue. This is where the primary reason for persistent failures of away sides lie – the lack of wicket-taking slow ball bowlers.

Just like India’s search for a fast-bowling great that is on for decades now after Kapil Dev (only Zaheer Khan comes anywhere close to it), most nations of the world are short of capable tweakers to threaten the wickets of Indians away from home. The success of England in 2012, where Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann combined to great effect helps my case. 

Less adaptive footwork

How can a player master the art of batsmanship against spin when he has no world class threats in his own land? He would have spent all his life facing fast yorkers, intimidating bouncers and provoking swing and seam movement, but certainly wouldn't have been exposed against better craftsmen of spin.

The visiting batsmen would have neither been trained to face the situation of having four-five fielders around the bat nor possess the technique to use their feet to get to the pitch of the ball. 

Confidence

On many occasions the hapless, poor equipped and vulnerable ‘specialist’ batters lose their battle against spin fearing failures after being made aware of the weak link in their techniques.

If their awkward on-field antics are anything to suggest, one might get the feeling that they were trying their best to gift their wickets to spin before our skillful lot praise them out. 

Jet lag

While this might not be a criteria during long international tours, it certainly is one considerable threat when it comes to the short tournaments like the ongoing Champions League T20.

With just a compact window for the global T20 competition, the need to get going in just two-three days after landing here is not an easy piece of thing as it looks from the outside and will surely take a toll on the players.

True, the financially powered IPL teams rob their best players, still the effect of routine travel and fixtures on alternative days might drain the cricketers - both physically and mentally.

Do you think there is more reasons than the ones discussed above? Comment your views.

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