In January, after India had lost the first two of three Tests in South Africa, their coach, Ravi Shastri, reflected on the reasons for their failure. “Conditions back home, we are familiar with. Here, conditions are different,” he said. “In hindsight, I would say another 10 days of practice here would have made a difference.” Seven months later they are two down in a Test series in England.
Given the clarity of his hindsight in January, Shastri’s subsequent lack of foresight seems startling: no touring team in history have done less red-ball practice before a five-Test series in England than this India side, who arranged a single four-day match against Essex, reduced at the last minute to three days because it was a bit hot, and decided that would do.
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