India vs England: What went wrong

So India has gone down 0-2 in a Test series, a rarity with the amount of consistency they have shown in the last odd decade. Is this the beginning of the end or is it just a blip? Either way, the team is going to be sorely tested in the years to come.

A look at what has gone wrong...

Spare Openers: The importance of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir cannot be underrated. While we have always been blessed with a talent of middle order batsmen, it is the opening pair which has been worrisome.

Regular batting collapses were common till Sehwag-Gambhir stepped in. Even one fit opener from this duo has been able to give India a decent start. For the first time in years, we were doing without both of them and the pressure is showing.

Both Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund have failed to make the cut and we need a new spare opener fast! Even someone like Wasim Jaffer hit five centuries in 31 matches and has been more successful than all the other spares.

We should also start looking out for a one down batsman now itself and let Rahul Dravid come two down. Imagine if Dravid retires and we miss an opener or two! The results could be even more disastrous.

Pace Spearhead: In the last decade, India has had a battery of pace bowlers, but leading the attack has always been a problem.

Even in the current series, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and S Sreesanth have been bowling well in patches. That's where the experience of Zaheer Khan comes in. Zaheer advises the juniors and always keeps one end tight.

A replacement to Zaheer also looks like a tall order for India given the amount of pacers that have come in and out of the team.

It may also be a good idea to start resting Zaheer in the shorter formats of the game to prolong his Test career.

The Knockout Punch: We have always had problems in finishing the tail in key matches. Mysterious batting collapses also happen at any time of the innings. But rarely has that happened in so many straight innings.

In the first Test, England recovered from 270-5 to 474-8. Then India collapsed from 240-5 to 286 all out. In the second innings, England fought from 62-5 to 269-6. India crashed from 225-5 to 261 all out.

In the second Test, England went from 126-8 to 221. India collapsed from 267-4 to 288 all out. In the second innings, England built from 339-6 to 544.

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When is the last you heard the opposition getting out of jail free on seven consecutive occasions? The performance has been quite baffling to say the least.

Of course in the last innings, India just imploded to an abysmal 158.

Spin Decline: While Indian spinners used to pick up only the odd wickets on foreign soil, even those odd wickets are becoming rare. Maybe it's time to give Harbhajan Singh a break and try out a few more new spinners like R Ashwin on foreign tours.

New Coach: Kapil Dev was unsuccessful and Greg Chappell had his fights with the Indian cricket team. On has to say that both John Wright and Gary Kirsten were downright brilliant.

Newly appointed coach Duncan Fletcher has had a not-so great beginning with Team India. We narrowly escaped with a 3-2 ODI win and 1-0 Test victory against a seriously depleted West Indies team.

Then this abject capitulation with England: Time is running out fast for Fletcher!

For example, India has failed to cross 400 in 14 straight Test innings, a worrying factor for a team which boasts of one of the best batting line-ups in the world.

Injuries and Fatigue: The BCCI has to take the lion's share of the blame. The international schedule is killing and the IPL is messing up all calculations.

It is now very clear that Sehwag, Gambhir and Zaheer should have never played in the IPL which took place immediately after the World Cup.

Thanks to the BCCI's habit of milking the cricketing cow for all its worth, the above three players have virtually chosen IPL over country and the result has been a disaster for India.

The same team won the World Cup didn't they? It is now time for the BCCI to concentrate on the long-term and reward all cricketers with more breaks.

Technically even if India draws one match and wins one match in the remainder of the series, we can still defend the Test crown.

But as of now, it appears that we are on the verge of having a new world order in Test cricket!

The author is a Bangalore-based journalist and blogger.

He blogs at http://sunilrajguru.com/