It may be a little early to make a decisive statement but I feel very strongly that the pressure of captaincy is telling on Sachin’s batting. The very fact that people have been harping about it affecting him the last time around, is probably making Sachin aware that he must perform this time in order to prove that theory wrong, and it has backfired in the past two games.

He is definitely not playing his normal game. Balls that would normally disappear to the boundary are being played defensively, and these over-cautious methods are not helping his cause or the team. In today’s game against Sri Lanka he scored 12 runs in the first 5 balls but ended up with 37 in 58 balls which means the next 25 runs took 53 balls or nearly 9 overs. Just not the normal Sachin I’m afraid.

From a decent looking 83 for 1 in the 15th over, India slumped to a total of 205 for 8, a good start thrown away-as usual! Rahul Dravid began the slump by gliding a ball into keeper Kalu’s hand’s – a replay of his dismissal against Australia. The coach should have already told him to cut out such shots and I hope Dravid realises his folly himself.

Only Jadeja who, continuing his good form of the World Cup, gave the Sri Lankans food for thought and top scored with 49. However he was guilty of throwing his wicket away when his presence would have mattered most. The rest of the batting was pathetic and the running between wickets despicable as India lost four out of eight wickets through run outs.

It appears that with Bob Simpson no more helping the team, India is back to its old ways.

The Indian Cricket Board is by far the richest cricket board in the world, but the way it works leaves much to be desired. It is clear for all to see that home-grown coaches have not helped.

Gaekwad, the current coach has been with the team for nearly three years now and the results have not been great. In fact, he should consider himself lucky to be around especially after India lost to Pakistan in India in the test series and one-dayers (if Pakistan had l ost to India in Pakistan, its coach would have surely been sacked).

After the World Cup, the Indian Board sacked the physiotherapist and the captain but the coach survived. Now looking at the performance of the Indian side over the past two games, we seem to have gone backwards instead of rectifying the mistakes of the World Cup.

Even a country like Bangladesh felt the need for a new coach after the World Cup and went in for a foreign coach from South Africa - Eddie Barlow. Why can’t our Board do the same? I’m sure it has have enough money to make a reputed coach an offer he cannot refuse, someone like Bob Woolmer or Bob Simpson.

Until then, we will continue to win the odd game on account of a brilliant individual performance. Without proper planning and thinking we will never be consistent like South Africa or Australia and that is why we need a professional coach, not someone who is appointed as a reward for having played for India a few years ago.

Coming back to the game, a total of 206 to chase was never going to be a problem unless India grabbed some early wickets but brilliant batting by Jayasuriya put paid to such hopes. Only Srinath troubled him and bowled well throughout but Prasad fed him with a few short pitched balls on a pitch not conducive to such stuff (a basic mistake which continued from the previous game). This only adds substance to my argument that a coach who rectifies mistakes immediately is needed.

Sri Lanka raced off to 83 in the 20th over before Nikhil Chopra finally dismissed Jayasuriya after he had scored a brilliant 61. Chopra bowled well but Kumble was a disaster going for 32 in his first 4 overs. On the tour of Sri Lanka so far, Kumble has been totally off colour.

Atappattu who opened the batting with Jayasuriya played his part brilliantly. This is where Whatmore, the Sri Lankan coach who re-joined the team after the World Cup has made an immediate difference. He instructed Attapattu to play the role of sheet anchor, to make certain early wickets were not lost and his in nings of 71 n.o, which fetched him the MOM award was a perfectly paced one.

Mahela Jayawardene and Indika de Saram scored 27 and 24 no. respectively and Sri Lanka were home and dry for their first win of the tournament, while India had to stomach it’s second consecutive defeat.

The bowling figures of the Indians are not worth a mention for the second game in a row but the blame must for today’s loss must rest on the batting for not taking advantage of a decent start.

And to think that we scored over 370 against the same team in 50 overs in the World Cup just three months ago! What a fall!

To make any comparison between the fielding of both teams will be a waste of time as the Indian fielding would have made a bunch of under-14 schoolboys ashamed. It is no wonder that SL affected 4 run-outs as they have a specialist fielding coach in Trevor ChappelI. India on the other hand have a coach who employs ancient fielding methods, suited to the early seventies and an embarrassment in today’s game.

India play against Australia on Aug 28th and Sri Lanka on Aug 29th and must win both games to have any hope of entering the final on 31st.

- Arjun Raja in Dubai, UAE

The views of this column are the author's own, and do not necessarily represent the views of NRI Online.