145;India weren146;t positive enough146;

In the first session of what turned out to be the final day of the series, one finally saw a glimpse of the quality that the famed Indian middle-order is capable of.

In the first session of what turned out to be the final day of the series, one finally saw a glimpse of the quality that the famed Indian middle-order is capable of.

Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman showed things might have been different had they shown similar touch earlier in the series. Dravid8217;s 68 saw him cross the 20 mark in the series averages, but Sachin Tendulkar 15 and Sourav Ganguly 16 were only marginally better than Ishant Sharma in the averages list.

India8217;s middle-order slump has disappointed even the locals here. Former Sri Lankan skipper Roy Dias, now Nepal8217;s national coach, was in attendance on Monday, and we asked him what he felt made the difference.

The 55-year-old spoke about the hype over the spin duo of Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan that worked on the minds of the Indian greats, the lack of positive attitude from them and their unfathomable tendency to use their pads more than the bat.

His biggest disappointment was watching Tendulkar get out in the final innings. 8220;I am a coach and Tendulkar is the best example from a coaching manual point of view for any youngster. I was surprised to see him pad up to the ball he usually would have stretched forward giving the full face of the bat. Sometimes, the main batsmen weren8217;t positive enough.8221;

Pad-first approach

Dias said the overuse of pads resulted in most of the top Indian batsmen getting out lbw or bowled. Statistics confirmed that he is spot on in analysing the collective Indian batting failure. In six innings, India8217;s top six batsmen were lbw 11 times, while they had their stumps knocked back on seven occasions. With the bat not in the scheme of things, and referring decisions the norm, they were in more than just a spot of bother.

8220;There was a lot of hype about Mendis and Muralitharan and it got to the players as well. Both are fantastic bowlers and two different types of bowlers. Murali has big turn and I haven8217;t seen a bowler like Mendis, who can hit the right spot almost every delivery,8221; he said.

Story continues below this ad

Dias, who was part of the Sri Lankan team that defeated India in 1985 to record their country8217;s first Test win, also asserted that age was a factor when it came to the Indian middle-order. 8220;They did not look fit enough to play three Tests in a row. Everyone is constantly talking about their age which means everytime they go out there, they are under pressure to perform,8221; he said.

But despite all that, he doesn8217;t think India needed to panic and make wholesale changes. 8220;They should gradually phase out players. A couple can go out together. A Rohit Sharma can8217;t match the quality of Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar but one day they will have to take over.8221;