Some of the fears held by Indian fans over the past decade are slowly becoming true. The question in everyone’s mind is “Will this is going to be the norm for the next 4-5 years post Sachin/Dravid. The batsmen are going to struggle, even against minnows on any pitch which has an iota of pace and bounce. Players like Murali Vijay who showed sound temperament in Test cricket may have fallen victim to the shorter version of the game and the attraction of huge payments and may have lost the technique to play as an opener. Rohit Sharma, who was once regarded as the next “The Wall of Indian cricket” also fall in the same category, completely transforming into a one-day and Twenty-20 player rather than a Test cricketer.

The fact that India failed to unearth any genuine fast bowlers in the last 4 years is hurting the team badly. This is further compounded by loss of rhythm and form of the successful Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan and Lakshmipathy Balaji. The frequent change from longer version to shorter versions of the game may have contributed to this decline.

The selector should start the cull of seniors like Nehra who consistently under perform and bring in proven performers like R P Singh, Ishant Sharma, Balaji and Irfan Pathan under the strict guidance of a knowledgeable bowling coach like Wasim Akram or Alan Donald who can guide the youngsters how to bowl in different conditions. Indian team, unlike other countries, can afford to bring top professionals in pitch analysis, reading the conditions, cross seam bowling etc.

The former coach Lalchand Rajput went into panic mode and said "These performances show that it's time to press the panic button as the 2011 World Cup is not far away. Apart from a couple, none of the players have been impressive and if a few senior players breakdown before the World Cup, we could be in big trouble”. 

This performance by the team with nine senior players rested may be an expected outcome in some quarters. Indian fans live on hope that the young guns will learn from their mistakes. The selectors have definitely erred is not selecting at least one or two senior players, a batsman and a bowler, who has more than 150 ODIs under their belt. After all it is International cricket and losing in this fashion may have a psychological effect on some of the youngsters and made India fall to third position on the ICC rankings. 

Whether it is a second string side or not does not really matter. With so many talented cricketers in the country, we should not be losing to Zimbabwe in the first place. And to lose twice is definitely a worrying sign. These players replaced seniors but their performances show that they are not ready for international cricket.