Former captain Sunil Gavaskar on Friday came down heavily on the Indian cricket team after the conclusion of its disastrous tour Down Under, saying it was hard to understand the "psyche" of Mahendra Singh Dhoni`s men.
"When they get through an achievement like a fifty, hundred or a wicket they snarl, snap and swear but when they drop a catch, they smile... it should be the other way round. It`s very hard to understand the psyche of the Indian cricket team," said Gavaskar.
India`s tour of Australia ended today when their hopes of qualifying for the tri-series finals were dashed with Sri Lanka pulling off a nail-biting nine-run victory over the hosts in the last league match in Melbourne.
Prior to the Commonwealth Bank ODI series, India were whitewashed 0-4 in the Test rubber.
Gavaskar said the Indian team did not seem to be hurt enough from the crushing losses they suffered at the hands of Australia.
"There were occassions when it looked like they were not hurt enough. There were a few examples...Ishant Sharma dropped a catch of Michael Clarke off his own bowling and what do you think the reaction was...he was smiling...you don`t smile when you drop a catch and Clarke went on to score a triple hundred."
"Umesh Yadav squandered a sharp caught-and-bowled chance in the last Test and the Australian player went on to score a hundred...what was Umesh`s reaction...he was smiling. I just don`t understand the logic behind smiling. I mean when you smile everybody smiles with you...that was something which was hard to understand.”
"The anger, that pent-up frustation from inside...that was missing. I don`t think that`s the way you want to set an example for young kids watching all the action that whenever you score a hundred, you should be swearing and if you take a wicket you should be abusing. I don`t understand it," Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar said the repercussions of this Australian tour would be long-lasting for the team.
"It (repercussion) will be, it actually is going to be long lasting. But if you go by the team selected for the Asia Cup, it does not look like an immediate one. Sometimes you don`t want knee-jerk reactions.”
"But who knows by the time September comes in when India have an international assignment. You could be in for some changes. May be after the Indian Premier League...in the month from June to September when everybody can sit together and look at what is best for the Indian cricket. That`s probably the time when you will find a few more changes," he said.
Gavaskar also added that it was India`s best opportunity to win a Test series in Australia.
"This was India`s best chance to try and win a series in Australia. Australia were ruffled, they had been dismissed for 47 in South Africa a month earlier. Then, just 10 days before the start of the first Test against India, they lost to New Zealand.”
"So they were in disarray...their top batsmen were not in form and there were question marks against Ponting and Hussey and even Clarke`s captaincy. So they were under a lot of pressure from their fans and media. So this was India`s best opportunity.”
"We had the chance from the first Test in Melbourne itself. You allowed it to slip away. From there on, India were just not able to claw their way back into the series. Australians were tenacious, they hanged in there, they did not give up, that`s what India found just a mountain too big to climb for them," he said.
