India, July 20 -- Every loss demands a face and currently India head coach Gautam Gambhir is in the firing line. With so shock losses for the Indian team across formats recently, that's not entirely surprising.

However, the latest ODI series loss (1-2) in England has to be seen in the context of India's poor record in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries. The away difficulty quotient is not weighted the same way in ODIs as Tests. Although it is a big factor, as their 15 losses in the last 24 matches this decade show.

The next 50-over World Cup is in South Africa in late 2027 and India have their task cut to get a conditions-appropriate squad ready. At no stage in England were India able to field a balanced elev...