India will have to forget the wins in Australia over the last two trips as well as the unprecedented loss to New Zealand at home recently to give themselves a chance of emerging victorious Down Under, said 1983 World Cup winner Sandip Patil in Mumbai on Wednesday. Rohit Sharma‘s Indian team will soon be hitting the Australian shores with their pride at stake, having been blanked 0-3 by New Zealand at home which has also thrown their plans for the World Test Championship into disarray. While India look to pick the pieces and put their best foot forward during the five-Test tour of Australia, Patil, also a former chairman of selectors, expressed confidence that the team is too good to be bogged down by setbacks.
“They have to play against Australia in Australia, they will have to forget what happened there last time. They will also have to forget what happened in this series (against New Zealand) and look forward,” Patil told the media here during the launch of his book titled ‘Beyond Boundaries’.
“We lost all practice games before winning the World Cup, so they should remember… you have to think positive and play positively only then you will get a positive result,” he said.
“If you play defensive cricket and think of winning, it is not going to happen,” he added.
Patil, however, said that the first-ever series whitewash to New Zealand is a wake-up call for Indian cricket.
“This (series loss) was like a wake-up call. It’s not like our team has been playing badly. A few months back they won the T20 World Cup. There are some big players in our team, surely they will bounce back,” he said.
“They must have learnt so many things from this loss,” he added.
The selection committee headed by Patil oversaw the transition of the national team about a decade ago, which was involved the exit of perhaps the greatest generation of Indian batters in Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and a few more.
Patil said while the decisions taken back then were not entirely his own, handling the tricky phase of transition, which is again approaching the Indian Test side, is something all selection panels have to go through.
“I didn’t take the tough decision (alone). The committee did. It is always in consultation with the captain, coach and the BCCI,” Patil said.
“The decisions we took were not because we hated someone or liked someone. We were looking at the future of Indian cricket and after our term was over, the Indian team did extremely well. It happens with every selectors. It’s not like that happened with us only.
“When I used to play, there would be talks about transition. ‘Sunil Gavaskar has retired. What will happen now?’ or ‘Sachin Tendulkar has retired. What will happen now?’ Now there is talk about Rohit Sharma… This will go on. Transition will go on, it’s part of cricket. You have to look at the future. What will happen going forward,” he said.
Asked if playing on turning tracks at home was the right approach, Patil said such calls are always made by the team management after assessing their strengths.
“It all depends on what the team and the coach want. It is dependent on the strength of the team. Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma are the right people to talk about it — they know their strength,” he said.
“All that we do is watch and wish for their success. No one feels good when our team loses but defeats teach a lot of things.” “I hope that they would have learned a lot of things from this defeat, a lot of discussion would have taken place in regards to what should be done in future and how,” he added.
Patil said India have the trait of bouncing back strongly and he is hoping for a quick turnaround.
“After every defeat, you have always seen the Indian team bouncing back. Not because I am an Indian and we all are Indians, but they will bounce back because they are a very good side,” he said.
Patil said while the pitch at Perth is not as fast and bouncy as before, Indian batters should be able to cash in on the batting-friendly surfaces Down Under.
“Perth back then was a fast wicket, it is not the same anymore. Australian wickets are basically batting-friendly wickets,” he said.
“We lost the series (against New Zealand) because the batting didn’t do well. I will not use the word ‘failed’ because it is negative. We just did not do well in the batting department.” “We have Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and so many (other) great players. I am sure they would have got together and talked about it.”
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