India has come up from down and under. Victorious too. Short of Ravi Shastri, almost everyone played. A lot got hit. The lucky ones survived. The team physio was on the field more than he was in the dressing room. Yet, the irony of it all is staggering. Indians got hurt. The Aussies are licking their wounds!

Kudos are in order. Pride and patriotism are placed on record. But kindly allow me to be Johnny Rain Cloud, if you will.

The old nemesis – pace and bounce – continued to haunt us. Beautiful batting got blemished by broken bones. Class was crushed by concussions. While it’s nice to see brave Indian batsmen take the blows and beat the pacers, we haven’t learned to be hits with minimal hits. Cricket is hard, but need not be harmful. The trophy is masking it.

Every time the Indian team returns from abroad, we talk about the need to have bouncy wickets in India. We talk about our inability to face pace. No one is talking about it now. That’s what a small win does. It’s hides truths.

Next to the Olympics, this was probably the largest contingent of sportsmen to leave Indian shores. Everyone played. Some were felled by trauma. That’s sad, yet understandable. But hamstrings are not. Pulling a muscle isn’t. We sent a panel of physios. Wonder what they were doing. Wonder what went wrong with a team that resembled a sick ward in a state hospital. Is 20-20 all that we can last through. No one cares to dig deep. The series win is keeping a serious issue from being studied.

The Indian team doesn’t need to worry about the covid virus since they can’t catch anything, said a What’s App message. How true. We dropped more catches than we held on to. Butter fingers grassed many. All this happened as our fielding coach was watching. Wonder if he caught that. Pity no one else caught that either.

Rishab Pant was sensational. In front of the stumps. Behind it, Rishab was caught with his pant down. Pardon my pun. Through the tour, he has proved to be the Rahul Gandhi of wicket keeping. He should play as a batsman and leave the wicket keeping to someone who can. That topic is now taboo. A victory down under has buried it down under.

Hold your anger against me. Save your tirade. I am as much proud as you are to see the team walk around Gabba holding our flag. Goosebumps galore. I got my share, yes.

But series wins shouldn’t mask serious issues. Be it cricket or corporate. One can lose the battle and win the war. But one shouldn’t win a battle and lose the war. Remember a company called Nokia. Its wins made headlines. Its faults lay hidden. One fine day, all of it swirled up like a volcano and buried the brand. Consigned the company to the dustbins of corporate history.

Then there was this Big Bazaar. Its big growth and bigger stores had its problems buried. While the world was clapping its concealed complications was clamping it down. The brand once offered cheap prices. Today, it’s being shopped at cheaper prices.

Cricket or companies, public wins need celebration. Private malaise needs calibration. Applaud outer wins. Analyze inner problems.

Well done Team India. Open the champagne. And when you get sober, we got to talk!