Skipper’s call: Stand up and be counted

Jaffer’s airy block outside the off-stump, Kaif’s tame backfoot push to covers, Dhoni’s decision to go for the ball then pull back his bat a bit late, and Raina’s regulation feeder to slips. From 62 for two, still very much in the game, skipper Dravid hung the embarrassing final tag of 91 — India’s lowest one-day total in six years after that Sharjah 55 against Sri Lanka — on “shot selection”.

“Probably some of our shot selection against the fast bowlers is something we need to look at,” he said.

After logging the lowest Test score of 66 on this ground nine years ago, India now have filled in the same column for one-dayers too. But really, it’s not yet time to file the mortuary report for this series — not by a long way. So what if Andre Nel has already marked Tendulkar as his wicket for the series.

But yes, there’s this growing feeling that the team could have got in a couple of more side games before the big ones. Ravi Shastri has even suggested that a small training camp on the greentop in Mohali may have done the trick.

Dravid, in fact, looked back on the number of times senior players had called for better domestic pitches that would have given youngsters at least a hint of what to expect in these parts of the world. “I think it’s been pretty much agreed that if we want to be competitive consistently overseas, we got to prepare wickets like this in the under-15 tournaments, Ranji Trophy,” he said.

There were a few words of encouragement from South African bowling coach Vincent Barnes, too. “You could still get wickets here that suit you. South Africa is all about different pitches, you could probably do well in Cape Town. But what India needs to do is assess the conditions early and adjust fast.”