India had to just play out 3 sessions on a not-so-bad pitch. They couldn’t. I blame Dravid and Tendulkar, besides Gambhir.

Gambhir mainly for being indecisive about running. He called for a non-existent run and then backed out. Losing Sehwag was bad for two reasons - the momentum that India had going was broken, and for all practical purposes, Pakistan knew, that India would not be able to chase. Which means they could give away a few boundaries here and there, but concentrate on getting wickets. Gambhir’s mistake would have been ‘normal’ on other days, but here, it was crucial.

Then of course, the hugely unexplainable defensive rut that he and Dravid got into. And then he got out right after getting his 50. If he had carried on, playing positively and keeping Pakistan on the backfoot, it would still have been ok. But he did not play positively, and also, got out. Bad. Bad, bad, bad.

After he got out, for no reason, Dravid and Sachin closed down the shop and decided to play for the draw. It is one thing to play for a draw and another, to play negatively for a draw. They could have put away the bad balls and even put some pressure on the bowlers by stepping out of the crease and spoiling the rhythm. But they went into a defensive frame of mind, and let Pakistan crowd them with so many fielders around the bat, that it was almost inevitable that one of the defensive shots would end up in a fielder’s hands.

And that is exactly what happened. Dravid pushed forward and Younis Khan (can he do anything wrong in this match???) scooped up a brilliant catch. VVS came in ahead of the captain, like in the first innings, and he was playing freely. Until a faster one caught him in a defensive frame of mind and trapped him. Sadly, that signaled the end of the Indian defense. Because even though Sachin was looking strong (but negative) at one end, there was going to be no one at the other end to be strong enough to resist the Pakistani bowlers.

Ganguly woeful run with the bat continued. He could not believe that he was bowled. One thing I would like to say here, strongly too, is that his failures have been exaggerated. Yes, he has failed in this test series, but his previous two series had scores of 57 and 40 (South Africa at home) and 71 and 88 (away in Bangladesh). I don’t think that is too bad. So please stop the noise about his batting failures and his captaincy problems. He is good at both and every batsman goes through a rough patch and luckily for him, the rough patch is still only three tests old. One big innings and he will bounce back. Leave Ganguly alone. With John Wright probably leaving, we need to have the captain stay the same so that the transition happens smoothly.

I have been a big critic of Ganguly’s favoritism but I think he is being made a victim here. So please, let him be and let India be. We need to start pointing fingers at Pathan’s lack of sting and fire in this test, the bowlers' inability to clean out Pakistan in Mohali and the negative attitude of the top batsmen in Bangalore.

So the series ended 1-1. So India will not be #2 in the ICC Test Rankings. And I don’t know what series are lined up for India next. Whatever be the case, hope there is some cricket in the next few months, because we’ve been having too many gaps! :-)