Going by Team India coach Ravi Shastri’s response to a query in an interview with The Times of India (TOI) correspondent at Johannesburg on January 22, Indian cricket appears to have regressed from a “disjointed” apathetic state to a “disjointed” pathetic level.

Asked whether going to South Africa earlier would have helped the team prepare better (and presumably avoid the four batting collapses which saw India handing over victory on a plate to the hosts in the first two Tests at Cape Town and Centurion), the world’s highest-paid cricket coach said, “There was a thought (to send the Test specialists) but then you are disjointed. Even as a team you are disjointed. Who is going to handle things here? These thoughts can be put out in hindsight. But, in hindsight, I would say the best thing would be to reach there two weeks earlier.”

Shastri’s response betrays a deplorable and “disjointed” lack of both hindsight and foresight. There is nothing unusual in Team India sending the team early or the Test specialists in advance for tough tours like the one of South Africa. And this applies to not just the senior national team but the junior one. Even for the ongoing under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, the BCCI accepted the coach Rahul Dravid’s request for sending the team early so as to give the players time to get used to the unfamiliar Kiwi conditions.

This time also, according to media reports, the BCCI did offer to send specialist Test players and the core of the team to South Africa even while the others played the meaningless December ODI series against Sri Lanka. These media reports add that the team management (essentially meaning the captain and coach) declined the BCCI’s offer.

Since the captain Kohli would have been busy planning his mid-December wedding in Italy, it would have been up to the world’s highest-paid cricket coach to take the initiative for sending a fortnight earlier to South Africa the Test specialists (Pujara, Murli Vijay, Umesh Yadav, Shami, Ashwin and Jadeja, none of whom was selected for the meaningless ODI series against Sri Lanka). The two net bowlers like Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini who were sent later could have been sent earlier. Arrangements could have even been made to schedule a few matches ahead of the Tests between the advance party and an under-23 South African team which could have included the 21-year-old Lungi Ngidi who played the Centurion Test in the absence of the injured Dale Steyn and took six Indian wickets in the second innings. And since Rahane wasn’t played in the December ODI series against Sri Lanka despite being in the squad, he could have been sent with the advance party to South Africa.

If Shastri had through the BCCI insisted on a few preparatory matches before the Test series, there is no way CSA (Cricket South Africa) could have refused. Shastri kept using the world “disjointed” in his interview with TOI. The only thing “disjointed” is the complete lack of preparation for the Test series in South Africa for which the team management (meaning captain and coach) is responsible. In this case, since captain Kohli had excused himself from the meaningless ODI series against Sri Lanka since he was arranging his mid-December wedding, it was up to the world’s highest-paid cricket coach to take the initiative for preparing for the tough Test series in South Africa.

The year 2018 has begun on a dismal note for Team India whose batting (barring Kohli) has collapsed in all four innings of the two Tests played so far at Cape Town and Centurion. Worse could follow this summer when Team India goes to England where the ball will swing and seam much more, courtesy the likes of Broad and Anderson. The Indian team management (Kohli and Shastri) has to plan in advance and show some foresight by trying to identify key players who could do well in English conditions.

For the Test series in England, replacing Rahane with Rohit Sharma on the basis of the latter’s ODI performance against Sri Lanka on batting-friendly Indian wickets is definitely not the way to go. The only one who seems to have prepared well in advance is the off-spinner Ashwin who played county cricket in England in August-September 2017 while his colleagues were playing the ODI series against Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand.

On challenging overseas tours, the Team India management cannot keep stumbling from Test to Test, blaming everything from the batting and the fielding to the running between the wickets. Since the captain Kohli also has to focus on improving his individual performance in England (after his disastrous outing on the previous tour in 2014 when he aggregated 134 runs in five Tests for an average of 13, without once crossing the 50-mark), it is high time the world’s best-paid cricket coach started earning the crores he is getting. Merely making celebratory statements in front of the TV news-channel cameras each time India beats Sri Lanka is not the way to go.

For the record, Shastri, according to ESPNcricinfo, is the highest paid cricket coach in the world, earning 1.17 million dollars a year, compared to 0.55 million dollars for Cricket Australia coach Darren Lehman and 0.52 million for England coach Trevor Bayliss. Shastri’s remuneration is said to be even more than what Kohli gets from the BCCI. Kohli, of course, gets much more by way of advertising revenue.