In line with popular reason if not popular (and commercial) emotion, India lost to Sri Lanka today in a Group B match. The Sri Lankans were their usual competent selves, and shrugged off a couple of early wickets to post a respectable total. In stark contrast, the Indian batting order — except for Dravid — crumbled in yet another exhibition of mental weakness. It was a perfect example of what Americans call "choking".

It was clear in the match today that the Indian bowling can perform respectably and yet the supposedly strong batsmen let it down time and again. Granted our bowling attack is not what I would call top-class, but our batting is way over-hyped. The sign of a good batting team is consistency, not sporadic outstanding performances. India's batsmen are certainly talented, yet there is no sign of grit and determination which so many teams show in their lower middle order. I wonder if we can ever build that up; do other teams get it from training, from the way their first-class cricket works, or is it something cultural? Until we figure that out, all the talent we can cull from a population of over a billion may be doomed to fail.