It's most unlike what we saw happen after India lost eight overseas Tests in 2011 and early 2012, when a countrywide rash broke out in favour of template wickets to fashion template Test victories under the desire to "maximise home advantage".

While home advantage is a legitimate goal, ask older India players if their home advantage in the first decade of the 21st century resembled what was sought post-2011. The way I see it, in your upcoming 18-month stretch at home, the presence of one or two under-watered crumblers every series will actually be disrespectful to the abilities of your own batsmen and bowlers. The best home-advantage wicket lies somewhere between what we call a paata (a flat, dead batting wicket) and an akhara, (a scrabbled mud pit where the ball offers the most uneven variety of turn and bounce from the same spot), and you have every kind of player needed to succeed on it.

There was another off-key note in that interview: "Someone who hasn't played for the country has no right to comment on an international cricketer anyway. I don't think that has any kind of logic. You cannot sit there and say how you would have done something differently when you have not been in that situation yourself and don't have the mindset of a cricketer."

Does that mean only doctors must be allowed to talk about hospitals? Or career politicians about the actions of others of their tribe? Or military men about war? Medicine, politics and war require objective, external, neutral comment or examination because they are significant issues affecting the average person. Does that mean cricket, outside the charmed circle of international cricketers, is really not important to anyone else and so doesn't need independent assessment? Definitely not. Of course, no one on the outside knows what goes on in an international cricketer's mind when he is in the middle, and all kind of wrong conclusions can be reached. But to say "no right" to comment has no reason.

Every India captain must find his own coping mechanism with the job's daily dramas: issuing credential certificates to critics is really a waste of your time. Last year Alastair Cook was offended by Shane Warne's remarks about his captaincy. From one international cricketer to another, note. There's no end to being offended. Ask Sourav Ganguly how he copped it from all corners - former cricketer, current cricketer, opponent, team-mate, chaiwallah - with disdainful detachment. Team director Ravi Shastri, in fact, handled a derisive chorus in his last years as a player pretty well too.

No one on the outside knows what goes on in a cricketer's mind when he is in the middle, and all kind of wrong conclusions can be reached. But to say such people have no right to comment does not stand to reason
Maybe you could deal with episodes like this by considering them the nuisance tax Indian cricketers must pay on their fabulous salaries, because in our cricket, shit happens. A lot of it. Win or lose.

Okay, Bishan Bedi comparing you to Douglas Jardine, was a bit OTT, but that's the way Bedi has always been. On his first tour as India coach, to New Zealand, when India lost the first Test in Christchurch, Bedi was reported to have said he wanted to throw his team into the Pacific. He has since clarified that what he said actually said was that if anyone in the team wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the sea, he would not stop them.

Way worse has happened to Indian teams than the tumult around the Freedom Trophy. Do you remember a TV show called Match ke Mujrim (Criminals of the Match), which tried to find a scapegoat for each game India played? There was a time when TV commentators would go at the team with both barrels. When India won a home series in the 1990s, a leading sports magazine had the team on the cover with a snarky headline: "Local heroes". This is the nature of the beast, this is what it will be: cantankerous, grumpy, demanding.

Give us a performance for the ages, though, and we can put up a fireworks display in words that you will never forget. Kotla was terrific, congratulations on 3-0, but the Freedom Trophy wasn't one for the ages.

Now, while I'm not expecting you to agree with any of this, the fact is we're not going anywhere. We're a bit like cockroaches - often easy to stamp on and crush, but rather difficult to annihilate as a species.

Happy holidays, captain and see you next year.

Sincerely,
Sharda
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written by ~ CHARITHARDHA10592947_696168680470955_2539388942837569892_n