What is cause of India changing from being world's best team to being so humiliated by England both in Tests and one dayers

There were a number of problems with India. I believe a lack of preparation was an issue. If you compare England, with their extensive support staff and extreme focus and dedication, to India, who just waltzed into England, played one warm-up match thinking they could adapt to the foreign conditions in an instant - England just have India, and every other team, completely beaten for professionalism.

This translates to the two teams fielding performance as well, especially in the test series- observers often commented India just didn't want to be there, didn't want to stop runs or apply pressure.

There's also a general lack of test-quality bowling. Praveen Kumar bowled well but, while both Sreesanth and Sharma had some moments, without Zaheer Khan level spearhead, the attack it just looked impotent.

The batsmen don't get away with it - They only made 300 twice against England in all matches - from a side that allegedly has 4 of the biggest superstar batsmen, possibly of ever, that performance is just not enough. Is IPL to blame for this? Maybe: When Sehwag manages to play the IPL with an injury that keeps him out of the biggest Test Series of a Summer, something is blatantly wrong - But Laxman was good in the West Indies yet still didn't perform.

You can look at India's shortcomings, but undoubtedly a big factor in the humiliating scale of the defeats is just misfortune. India were unlucky, especially in the one dayers. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong; While some of that is poor preparation, and blame lies at the BCCI's door - sending unfit bowlers who haven't played a first class match in months - in the One Day series, India were in promising positions batting first a few times, and had England facing huge chases, then rain interrupted, lowering the number of runs needed to score, or causing the match to be abandoned completely. In different weather, India could have won that series 2-1.

But the real cause of the result just seems to be an unfortunate case of India meeting a better team in their back yard, and in form. England with Anderson, Tremlett, Broad, Bresnan, Finn and Onions have 6 seamers they could call on that would perform at Test level and with Swann, have 5 bowlers in the top 11 of the ICC Test Rankings. Even God himself would get out to an unplayable ball. While India aren't as bad as the humiliation they received, I don't think they're as good as England. It's a shame the players didn't put up more of a fight against a team who do little else.

This answer was edited by toomanysound 178 days ago.

Reason: Rewording