When the final wicket fell during the fourth day’s play, India not only crashed to one of their biggest defeats on Sri Lankan soil, it also served as a reminder of the ghastly fact that Indian cricket has some serious issues. And more astonishingly, the problem is playing in the sub-continent, our strength until a few years ago!
Since the turn of the century, India’s win percentage at home has been 42.11%, winning 16 out of 38 games. To India’s credit many of these wins have come against worthy opponents such as Australia, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan.
But the few losses have been to these very same opponents, namely Australia, South Africa, England and Pakistan.
India famously lost the 2000 series against SA in a very poor fashion, which later prompted the legendary Sachin Tendulkar to resign from the captaincy.
But after that, India did not lose a single series at home, till Australia, under Gilchrist and Ponting, secured the “final frontier” during the winter of 2004.
This was preceded by a dull Test series against New Zealand, which saw both Tests being drawn.
In fact, the last time India even came close to dominating a Test series at home was in 2005, when they beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in the three Test series.
It was a period which saw India pulling off some breathtaking performances away from home. Most remarkably Test wins in West Indies, England (both in ’02) and the famous drawn series in Australia (’03-’04). (India’s wins in Bangladesh (all tours) and Zimbabwe (2005) have been overlooked.)
Therefore it is astonishing that the team fell to such depths at home!
Here is what the numbers say:
At home:
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