Recapping India’s disastrous tour of England and Australia, Nasser Hussain said that the only reason behind the dismal performance of the Men in Blue was excessive cricket.
"What I saw in England a few months after India's World Cup triumph was a team that was not well prepared. They were not quite ready for England,” said the cricketer turned commentator.
"While a lot of the players were undercooked, most of the Indian players were overcooked. There was too much cricket being played," said Hussain referring to the two-month long schedule of the Indian Premier League and hosting the West Indies soon after the ICC World Cup 2011, spanning 45 days.
"The difference between the two sides was England were well prepared while India were not," he added further.
During the disastrous tour of England last summer, Dhoni-led India not only faced a 4-0 Test series whitewash at the hands of the hosts, but also surrendered their world number one Test status to the Poms. Their next offshore assignment was the 2011-12 tour of Australia, which started in December last year and concluded on March 2. During the three-month long tour Down Under, the reigning ODI world champions succumbed to a successive 4-0 Test series whitewash, followed by an unimpressive show in the triangular Commonwealth Bank series, which also featured Sri Lanka.
"Modern cricketers are fit, well rested and prepared,” said the former England cricketer. “That should happen," he insisted.
Hussain believes that the Indian team is still a force to reckon with and should not be taken lightly.
The 43-year-old former Essex batsman also lavished praise on master blaster Sachin Tendulkar after he scored the much awaited 100th international tons against Bangladesh today.
"Sir Donald Bradman was great but for me the greatest batsman to have ever played the game is Sachin Tendulkar," said the former England skipper.
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