Is 'most consistent' Team India losing its sheen and surviving on past glory?

We are no stranger to the fact that consistency has been the hallmark of the Indian Test team over the past five years However after its second successive failure in a WTC final the side appears to have lost its best shot at attaining greatnessVirat Kohli Rohit Sharma Cheteshwar Pujara Ajinkya Rahane Ravindra Jadeja R Aswhin and Mohammed Shami have contributed to the teams success in all conditions but with all of them being on the wrong side of 30s they may have just ran out of time to create the aura of invincibility that the Australian teams of the 90s and early 2000s hadMost of them are likely to be around in case India make another WTC final two years later but with their best years already behind them the task will get tougher for the golden generation of cricketers who played their part in famous wins all around the world including the backtoback series triumphs AustraliaQuestions will be asked after Indias comprehensive defeat at The Oval to Australia and the selectors will need to take some tough calls going into the new WTC cycle which starts with the West Indies tour next monthAlso Read WTC Final SmithHead 285run partnership made the difference says Aaron FinchIndia dropped both Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara from the side following the South Africa tour but brought them back rather than grooming youngsters Rahane scored the bulk of the runs for India in the WTC final but was going back to him and Pujara the right callFormer India selector Sarandeep Singh who saw India script one of their best Test triumphs in Australia in January 2021 doesnt see wholesale changes being made in the batting department but the bowling lineup could be drastically different going aheadKohli and Rohit will be around for the next cycle but I see a lot of major changes in the bowling department The current generations list of achievements is long but you also need to win big titles With so many lefties in the Australian lineup not playing R Ashwin was a shocker Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur were not as potent as Siraj and Shami and that cost India the game Also the experienced batters could not live up to the expectations This team may have already hit its peak but there is no reason why it cant win come 2025 an optimistic Sarandeep told PTIWith Jasprit Bumrah injured Shami has been leading the pace attack but considering the workload he has had to ensure across formats it will be tough for him to last another WTC cycle Mohammed Siraj was the best bowler for India in the final but if he doesnt get support from others he will be at a bigger risk of breaking downFor some reason no attention was paid to prepare the next line of pacers It will be tough for Shami to carry on for another two years Siraj is the only one who is young but he cant be overused You needed to groom Umran Malik the only bowler who can clock 150kmph but you did not try him We also need a leftarm pacer and rather than going back to Jaydev Unadkat Arshdeep Singh could have been tried Some big calls have to be taken soon Sarandeep addedThe India batters inability to bat for longer periods in a Test match has also been exposed in this cycle be it in home conditions or overseas Being aggressive against a hostile attack can be productive but loose shots from some of the senior Indian batters highlighted that they were not prepared to play the waiting game in testing conditionsIt is important to show some vision as far as the A team is concerned so that you can build a bench strength I dont want to pinpoint but it is very important to build bench strength We have not been able to do that in Test cricket NCA has become a rehab centre We need vision and the will to implement it We must be preparing now for the next cycle said former India captain Dilip VengsarkarWith PTI inputs