CHOOSE TO PREPARE OR PREPARE TO LOSE

    Looking at the tame Indian submission in the third test and the fact that a single English batsman was able to pile up more runs than what the entire Indian team could manage, it really makes you wonder as to what exactly constitutes the Indian team's notion of preparing for a high profile series like this one.

    It was more than obvious that most of the Indian top order looked like bunnies in terms of their ability to play deliveries pitching on or around the off stump and moving away towards the slips. The simplest and most effective approach towards fortifying India's batting on seaming tracks would have been, to make the
Indian top order have a long date with a modern bowling machine. I would imagine, with the kind of technology the current bowling machines pack, it shouldn't be difficult to simulate what Broad, Anderson and co. have been bowling at the Indians. Not only would that have helped the Indians prepare better for what they would be facing from the English bowlers, but, it would have also provided an objective assessment of where each Indian batsman stands in terms of being able to face a seaming attack. While a bowling machine might not have the intellectual tactfulness of a Broad or a Bresnan in terms of conceiving an adaptive strategy to get the batsman out, faring well against the machine would have definitely given the team some self assurance as far as possessing the technique to flourish in such seamer friendly conditions is concerned.  

    All in all, while injury did play some part in India's school boyish performance, the lack of preparation would definitely have to be the main cause for the whipping India have received from the English seamers.