It seems at the moment that India is like a ship that needs a storm to sail. India seem a fighting side when behind and an ordinary team when they are either ahead or begin favourites. It is worrying because you shouldn’t have to lose to win but if you are an optimist you’ll say ‘hang on, it means they can win’. Sadly, this is a hypothesis I have long held and one for which no solution has yet presented itself.

It would be easy to say that India are complacent. Indeed, it is a stick that has often been used to beat this side and yet a side that has the likes of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar cannot answer to that name. So, is it, as I increasingly believe, that India’s inherent nature is to play safe and that a defeat or an act of provocation causes them to bind together and produce performances that are otherwise bottled inside?

Either way, India will need to find a route other than defeat to win matches if Gary Kirsten’s ambition of becoming number one has to be realised. It is a good thought and one that all good teams must possess but to implement that, the entire team has to be comfortable with the idea.

You cannot expect to be number one and lose by an innings and two hundred runs. Indeed, as most successful Olympic athletes will tell you, as indeed will Australia’s cricketers, the result cannot be a source of anxiety. I suspect India fret too much over the result and in doing so, lose the freedom that characterises all great performers.

... contd.