Once may be bad luck, but twice in a row should be cause for introspection. As India’s loss to Australia in the World Test Championship final sinks in, certain facts are evident. Just as they were 24 months ago, the Indians were coming straight from a grueling Indian Premier League schedule, one that demanded from players quite a different set of skills. They were clearly unprepared, not just for English conditions, but for a critical ingredient of the Test match ~ the red ball. Many of them dazzled with the odd shot, but with the exception of Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur in the first innings, not one of them crossed 50. Their senior batsmen, captain Rohit Sharma,

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli managed scores of 15, 14, 14, 43, 27 and 49 between them. Several of these dismissals were to poor shots. In two innings, the three stalwarts scored fewer runs than Australia’s top scorer in a single essay. India began badly by selecting a team that did not find place for the world’s top spin bowler, Ravichandran Ashwin, a player who had performed well enough in the last final and in the Tests that followed to merit automatic selection. In contrast, the Australians picked the second-best off-spinner in the business, and he provided them crucial breakthroughs and a fourth of the Indian wickets to fall.

To compound this selection error, the Indians inexplicably chose to field first. Clearly, the curator had not prepared a green-top at the Oval, nor did conditions justify the decision. By choosing to field first, the Indians sent two messages to their opponents ~ first, they were underprepared, as they were in 2021, for the rigours of a five-day engagement and, second, that they had greater faith in the ability of their pace attack, minus Jasprit Bumrah for this final, to take wickets than in that of their batsmen to score runs against the Australian attack. In the event, superlative knocks by Travis Head and Steven Smith, and cameos by David Warner and Alex Carey, were enough to give Australia an unassailable first innings total. If India are serious about becoming the world’s top Test team, its administrators will have to go back to the drawing board, to ensure that the IPL does not become a stumbling block to its plans. While the league has played a part in bringing into the spotlight a few good players, a handful of whom have shown the ability to straddle formats, it does not provide the proper preparation for the five-day game; indeed, by stressing the virtues of attacking batsmanship and defensive bowling at all times, the 20-over game is in many respects antithetical to the needs of the longer engagement. It is not money alone that should drive decisions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Surely, administrators must target being world champions in the most pristine format as well.