Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Beaten black and blue” (August 19). Winning or losing is part of any sport, but what hurt us is the manner in which we lost. The way we drew the first Test and won the second against England, had raised hopes. But that proved to be a flash in the pan, as the editorial has observed. The team played in a callous manner, and lost three Tests by massive margins.
No one expected the Indian team to win the series abroad, but the way it threw in the towel was embarrassing. It does not augur well for this young lot as it failed to demonstrate a fighting spirit. It has put a question mark on the team’s ability to face competition at the highest levels.
Now, we have to see how the Indian players perform in the forthcoming one-dayers. Meanwhile, there are serious questions about MS Dhoni’s captaincy and on the skills of our top order batsmen to deal with seam and swing.