Forget the past, let’s play to win

The series may have been lost, but today’s match is no less important for that.

This is one helluva long season, there are many battles still to come — including against Australia — and every incremental gain can only have a multiplier effect as Indian cricket seeks to redefine itself. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team has everything to play for.

Frankly, I am out of sync with the prevailing despondency after Ricky Ponting’s side had won the Nagpur match. Did we expect this series to be a cakewalk?

Beating Australia in a 7-match series means playing better than the best team in the world over a protracted period of time, not just one day. That was always going to be excruciatingly difficult.

Keep aside the euphoria over the Twenty20 World Cup victory and the extraordinary expectations it raised, the Indian team hasn’t done too badly.

In two matches, the batsmen have scored in excess of 290 runs, and in every match, the bowlers have managed to take early wickets and put pressure on the Australian batting.

The contest, as Ponting has confessed to a few times, has been hard-fought. India can take credit for running the Aussies so close.

Obviously some things could have been done differently — in cricketing and psychological tactics — which may have yielded better results.

For instance, the tactic of using sledging to beat the Aussies at their own game backfired not because it was wrong, but because the timing was all wrong.

It should have come after a win, not before a ball was bowled — and certainly not when you are on the mat yourself! That was kinda silly.

Many lessons learnt over the past three weeks, Dhoni must now look ahead — to salvage pride in this series, and also establish some sort of momentum for the future.

This match provides him the opportunity to assess the mettle of his players, and also the scope for some experimentation.

Honestly, the arguments against the ‘seniors’ have been unimpressive: the splendid form of Tendulkar and Ganguly is testimony to that, so I don’t believe that large-scale changes will help.

Ultimately, the aim should be to win, not lose this match.

But it may be prudent to rest Dravid for this game. He has looked withdrawn, almost Hamletian in his disposition in the middle, which has made his efforts look even more niggardly.

It must be remembered that this is his first lean trot in many years, so the urge of some people to write him off must be summarily dismissed.

Yet, some R&R might be good for Dravid, and an opportunity to play on his home ground may be good for young Rohit Sharma.

The bigger task for the Indian team, of course, is how to control the rampaging opponents. I

njuries have prevented Hayden and Ponting from playing all matches but that has not subdued the march of the Aussies.

Andrew Symonds, provoked into ‘monster’ form, has been the pick of the side, but that does not diminish the contribution of almost every other player, and especially bowlers like Mitchell Johnson and Brad Hogg.

Indeed, it’s been a superb all-round performance, and never better than when the team has been under pressure. If that lesson is well and truly learnt, India may still take away a great deal from this series despite losing it.