India need to guard against siege mentality

Injury to Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

A blow on the helmet first ball for acting captain Virat Kohli.

An improbable target of 364 on the final day in Adelaide.

The Gabbatoir.

The heat and humidity of Brisbane.

A mini collapse on the second morning at the Gabba.

A questionable tactic of riling up Mitchell Johnson and paying through 88 runs.

For the first eight Test-match days of the tour, India fought through everything. Not successfully, not prettily, not by the textbook, but they showed the spirit, the aggression, the persistence to run Australia close for those eight days. There was some good fortune involved, yes. Had it not rained in Adelaide, they wouldn't have got two generous declarations. In Brisbane they gave a much better account of themselves, especially with the ball, until they Mitchelled themselves.

Yet it was that half an hour before the start of the fourth - which also turned out to be the final - day of the Test that somehow got the better of their spirit. They had been requesting for fresher pitches in the nets, a request they felt was necessitated by the cracks on one of the pitches. On the fourth day, while netting before going out to bat, Shikhar Dhawan injured himself. Virat Kohli received a blow too. India, by their own admission, just didn't handle the situation well.

Dhawan omitted to inform the management of the seriousness of the injury, Kohli got only five minutes to mentally prepare himself, and four wickets fell for 16 runs. In a blur, the match was lost. India were down 0-2. It was almost as if exhausted by all the fight they have put on the field, they just felt everything was stacked against them when they saw key batsmen getting injured on pitches they had asked to be changed earlier. We have all done that. It's not exactly an excuse, it's just that we find it easier to give up when there is an external reason attached to that decision.

That India were feeling hard done by all this is clear. They shot off an email to the press, not an official complaint, yet an expression of indignation at the facilities. It soon emerged the Gabba ground doesn't even have an active gym, which also irked India. A couple of players had to go out to procure some vegetarian food. Most importantly, the feeling that marginal calls tend to go against them is now becoming a belief although India can't make it officially public.

Suddenly the same Australian crowd and press that were loving this Indian team for its aggressive cricket has turned on them. One newspaper has put MS Dhoni in Iron Man armour and has dubbed him "Whine Man". The accompanying story says something to the effect of: "Our pitches are too spicy, our food not spicy enough, how about a tablespoon of cement to harden up?" There is a picture of a tablespoon of cement next to it.

More seasoned and rational analysts, who have seen teams break down on their tours of Australia, have observed that this might just be it for India. "For every touring team, every summer, there is a time, a place and a breaking point," Greg Baum has written. "On Saturday, it was the Gabba nets, before play."

Baum might well be right. India need to watch out against this victim mentality. They might well be in the right with their complaints over the practice pitches, lack of facilities, food (although India are being ridiculed for it, arranging for some food from a takeaway opposite the ground is not that big a deal) and standard of umpiring, but they cannot afford to take refuge in siege mentality.

There is an antecedent from earlier this year. In England, India were going all right until they couldn't prove the allegations made by Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni against James Anderson. There was serious, genuine indignation involved there. Somewhere in that incident India felt let down. Let down by the CCTV camera not working "strategically", let down by what they felt was weak prosecution by the ICC, let down by Anderson getting away scot free when umpires had heard him abuse Indian players and had omitted to take any action. Even during the Southampton Test, when the legal wrangle was on behind the scenes, a couple of players felt England were given more sledging leeway by the umpires, especially during an incident close to stumps on day four when Anderson got stuck into Ajinkya Rahane.

The acquittal for Anderson came the day India left for Manchester. The next two Tests lasted six days. The spirit might have left them in the conference room of the team hotel that doubled up as courtroom. They needed somebody to tell them then that they didn't have a case that could stand the test of the law. It didn't matter how genuine they might believe their testimony to be.

They need someone to tell them right now that the umpires also ruled in favour of their batsmen on the final day of the Adelaide Test. Kohli and M Vijay could have been given out lbw long before they eventually fell. They need someone to tell them that their manager signed off on the menu. They need someone to tell them that it is easy to feel victimised at such times, but that is not the solution. India need to put this mess behind them - or make an official complaint to ICC and get it out of the way - and move on to MCG with their minds free.

Over the last year India have shown some signs that they can put a string of good Test performances together, but they haven't really crossed the line. They shouldn't let this victim mentality be a distraction and a contributing factor to their staying this side of the line.