India Have Learnt Nothing From Defeats: Sunil Gavaskar Tells NDTV

Sunil Gavaskar said that the Indian batsmen had not learnt from earlier mistakes after they were bowled out for 148 in the first innings of the fifth Test against England at The Oval on Friday. (Day 1 Report | Scorecard | Highlights)

After being asked to bat in overcast conditions on a fast pitch, India's batsmen once again showed poor technique and application. Gautam Gambhir fell for a first-ball duck for the first time in his Test career while Ajinkya Rahane failed to score for the first time in Tests. Virat Kohli's poor run continued and Murali Vijay's form seems to have abandoned him after an initial successful phase. More importantly, it was not the usual suspects, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who did most of the damage.

It was the younger pair of Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan, who ripped through the Indian line-up with six wickets between them and Gavaskar, a former opener felt the tourists continued to perish to ordinary deliveries, pushing hard and playing the wrong balls, which suggested they have learned nothing from their humiliating defeats in Southampton and Manchester.

"The important thing when you tour overseas is that you have to be ready to conquer conditions and be mentally prepared for the hard times. If you are not mentally prepared to fight it out, and try and slam your way out of trouble, you will get into more trouble. Some of the dismissals showed that the batsmen were playing with hard hands. It actually suggests India have learned nothing from the past two Test matches," Gavaskar told NDTV.

Gavaskar, a former India captain, who is now one of the most respected commentators in the world, said Dhoni's batsmen lacked patience and consequently perished to ordinary deliveries, that did not deserve wickets.

"Look at the way those dismissals have taken place; they weren't really wicket-taking deliveries. They have gone for shots when they should not have, when they were not ready to play the big shots and when the ball was still doing a bit. Patience was the need of the day. It is a five-day Test match and any team that bats for at least four sessions stays in the game. You can't stay in the game batting for three sessions, unless you bowl the opposition out in three sessions too."

"It has not been a happy day for India on the field. It was more of poor batting than any extraordinary bowling. There were a couple of good deliveries bowled as you would expect on a pitch where there was a fair bit of grass and a fair bit of hardness underneath the surface. But I think there was a lot of poor batting," he added.

The former Indian opener, however, lauded another brave effort by Dhoni, who scored 82 runs out of the team's 148 as wickets kept falling at the other end.

"Temperament is what separates the men from the boys. Dhoni does not have copybook technique. You should know which balls to play and leave and that is what Dhoni did. The Indians should have done that."

Gavaskar hoped India's batsmen would follow their captain's example and come up with a better performance in the second innings. However, the initiative has been lost with England well and truly on top by the end of the first day.