India: Worse than Bangladesh?

India were outplayed in every department by England

It's easy to have a pop at India's cricketers at the moment but they have brought it all on themselves.

They went into the Test series against England as officially the best side in the world but after their 4-0 defeat serious questions have to be asked about where they are heading in the longer form of the game.

The status of Indian cricket is still perhaps as high as it ever has been after their World Cup triumph on home soil earlier this year, but in the Tests in England this summer they let their standards slip so far it became hard to see how they could beat anybody - even the likes of lowly Bangladesh.

England must be given enormous credit for their hard work and skill and nothing should be taken away from them.

They simply demoralised the Indians day after day with sensational bowling, batting and fielding displays, and they would have beaten anyone in this form.

However, India should have put up a much better fight.

If that side was the best in world cricket, then the standard of Test cricket is in a sorry state.

Their much-vaunted batting line-up delivered no scores above 300 (although they hit exactly 300 in their seventh innings of the series) and that is never going to be enough to beat world class teams like this England one.

As for their bowling 'attack', they may as well have just not bothered.

Praveen Kumar was decent when fit but the rest of the bowlers were toothless and never bothered the likes of Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook, who simply racked up the runs.

The likes of Pietersen helped themselves to runs against the poor Indian bowling attack

England's lowest score of the series was 221 all out in the second Test, but they still managed to win the game by a comfortable margin.

They only had six batting innings - they declared one of those on 269-6 - and in the other four, they never got lower than 474.

Their innings at Edgbaston - where they hit a massive 710-7 declared - summed it all up.

As ever, England's batsmen should be given a huge amount of praise for their performances but the amount of 'buffet bowling' on show was embarrassing.

And as for the fielding, we could be here all day.

Captain and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni didn't set the greatest of examples, consistently dropping routine deliveries, and while this might not have cost India many wickets it certainly set the tone for the others.

Dhoni's wicketkeeping came under serious scrutiny as the series progressed

This should have been a top class encounter between two world-class outfits at the top of their games but the fact is that one team turned up and the other didn't.

There is no doubt India suffered bad luck during the series - injuries to key bowlers Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar hardly helped - but they say you make your own luck and that may just be the case here.

Many of India's players looked unfit and unready for the rigours of Test cricket, while the preparation for the series left a lot to be desired.

Perhaps it was inevitable they would struggle to produce their best, with some of the team arguably jaded from the World Cup and subsequent Indian Premier League, while the average age of the side also contributed to their lack of fitness.

However, the shrugged shoulders attitude a lot of the players showed was simply unacceptable.

Gautam Gambhir was perhaps the prime example of that in the final Test when, after suffering concussion, he was simply not up for the fight.

He came in at number nine in the first innings and number eight in the second despite recovering from the injury, and that just summed up the lack of fight in this India team.

Rahul Dravid scored three centuries in the series and he is the only player - along with perhaps Kumar - who can hold his head high after the series.

Dravid performed admirably despite the failings of his team-mates

Without Dravid, India would have been even further embarrassed and that is hard to imagine.

He was the only player to contribute a century for India in the series and that means Sachin Tendulkar's wait for his 100th international hundred will have to go on.

He almost achieved it in the last Test - falling an agonising nine short of the landmark - but it is inevitable it will come sooner rather than later.

Tendulkar had a relatively lean series with the bat but he is still a world-class player at 38 and it would be a major backward step if India dropped him. They won't drop him, of course.

It is hard to imagine how India could have been any worse but how would they have fared against Bangladesh, for instance?

Last year, Bangladesh faced exactly the same England team in two Tests and were heavily beaten.

The likes of Tamim Iqbal showed a lot more fight than many of this Indian line-up

However, they managed 382 in the final Test and were a lot more threatening than India with the ball.

They lost one of the games by an innings and one by eight wickets, but at least they had a proper go at it.

India lost two of the Tests this summer by an innings and the other two by heavy run margins, so it could be said that even Bangladesh could have beaten them in this form.

India's biggest problem may be the average age of the team and the fact that too many of their players are 'undroppable'.

Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma will not be dropped despite poor series, while Rahul Dravid will deservedly keep his place in the team.

Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Dhoni must stay in the side but as for the others, it would be a great show of strength from India's board of selectors if they went down a different route.

Tendulkar suffered disappointment in the series but should come back stronger

Test cricket must be prioritised and faith should be placed in younger players to ensure India's team does not become a closed shop where players are never given a chance to impress.

India are much better right now in the one-day forms of the game - they are 50 over world champions, after all - and it would be a major surprise if there was not a marked improvement in the forthcoming one-day series.

Sehwag will be a big miss after he was ruled out but it is hard to bet against India turning the tables and coming back strongly.

As for Test cricket, they will be better when they get back in their own conditions but the failure of this series should not be ignored.

It has laid bare the failings of Indian cricket and such a debacle should never be seen again.

India is a proud cricket nation that has taken a battering over the last two months but all is not lost and it can be turned around.

The rebuilding job should start here.