Our batsmen made all the difference

India lost the five-Test series because the shot selection by its batsmen left much to be desired. It is true bowling in certain periods was good. But the difference between the two teams was batting. I will start with the example of West Indies. We had some big stands in a number of telling situations which could have swayed one way or the other. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Man-of-the-Series, was a prime example of it. His shot selection was excellent.

On the other hand, on quite a few occasions, when our bowlers were genuinely tired and getting to falter a little bit, we got a number of wickets through loose shots.

You just have to look back at the fourth day of the fifth Test. We had two soft dismissals off two short balls. At that point of time, we were struggling to take wickets. Then two short balls gave us easy wickets.

We had our problems in shot selection but we have tried to cut it out. I think the Indians to a large extent didn8217;t do it and that8217;s probably the reason they lost the series. Actually, the Trinidad game confirmed to me that we have a chance against the Indians. It is ironic that even though we lost that game, it confirmed to me that we, if we could play well, would beat this Indian side. I thought rather than Indians winning it, we lost the game.

We had a similar situation against South Africa where we came back in the morning needing hundred runs and a bit, with nine men in the shade, and just collapsed miserably. Obviously we didn8217;t learn from the mistakes. But yet I was encouraged by what I saw of Indians. So after the game, rather than stressing on the negatives, we stressed on the positives. We said we are not playing to the full of our potential as we can, and we have not given them a run for their money. If we raise our game a notch, we would beat these guys.

We had the example of Zimbabwe where we beat them in the triangular final. I just think if you play well against the Indians, be it One-day or a Test match, if you can go through some good sessions, you have a chance to beat them. They don8217;t travel well and they don8217;t play well outside India. In a way, it is the same problem as with us. I could relate to what Ganguly is feeling. I think highly of him because of the way he came back after Guyana. It was remarkable the way he recovered and I thought he played well in the remaining innings.

Starting with Trinidad, well in Trinidad he was out to a nothing shot at mid-off off me in the first knock, he got stuck in and played well. I suppose one thing which could be said against him is when he got in, he didn8217;t carry on. He must be kicking himself for it. He looked good and was one of our main concerns.

Sachin Tendulkar is a world class player and if he is going to be at the crease at any length of time, he is going to score. I wouldn8217;t say he had a bad series but he probably didn8217;t have as great a series as we think probably he could have had. It was a big loss for India that Sachin didn8217;t fire as well as he can. Rahul Dravid overall played well at number three. He held us up on a number of occasions.

Press Trust of India