In the last year and a half after
the grand success of the world cup 2011, the performance of the Indian team has
tapered off rapidly, with humiliating losses in England and Australia. Yes it is true that the ignonimity of these
huge defeats has certainly dented the psyche of the Indian cricketing system as
a whole. What will have even hurt the cricketing fans in India would have been
the way in which the Indian team capitulated at home against England in the
test series a month back. For long the
Indian team has always been very difficult to beat at home on dead pitches
having nothing in it for the fast bowling fraternity. There have been a host of
issues which the Indian team will have to address . The bowling is looking very
insipid even on Indian pitches. The team is going through a transitional phase as far as test cricket is concerned.
The most worrying aspect which needs immediate attention is the poor form of
the 2 openers. Sehwag and Gambhir as an
opening pair have been very inconsistent and have failed to give solid starts
to the team for some time now.
It is very easy to dismiss the
talk of dropping an experienced opener and the reason given is that there are
no replacements for these quality opening batsmen. I find this argument as
ridiculous as any other which I have
heard in the recent times. Surely the job of the selectors is to identify the
talent at the first class level and I refuse to believe that there are no
batsmen who can do a good job if they are given ample opportunity at the
highest level. Batsmen like Jivanjyot Singh of the Punjab, Rahul Dewan of
Haryana have performed quite well in the Ranji season and should be given a
look in to the national setup. We have to assess the situation of Sehwag and
understand that his game is primarily based on the hand eye co ordination with
minimal use of footwork. He is 34 years old and with his eye sight diminishing
it will be very difficult for him to score consistently at the test level
especially in the overseas conditions. Do not get me wrong he is one of the
finest openers the game has ever seen but once he is out of form like the way
he has been over a year it is going to be extra bit difficult for him to get
back in good form as his reflexes are bound to get slower by the day. He is
also not among the fittest guys in the
team and with an extra bit of weight it makes the matter all the more worrying .If
we observe Sehwag over the past couple of years, he has managed to score a century or two in test
cricket but these good scores have come far and few in between as supposed to
some years back when he used to regularly torment quality bowling attacks home
and away. Sehwag must be dropped for the test series against Australia thereby
sending clear signs to the non performing players.
There is a worrying sign for
Gautam Gambhir who has not scored a test
century in the last 3 years. If we look at the dismissals of Gambhir lately, we
can observe that he has been getting dismissed either by playing across the
line or trying to poke at deliveries outside the off stump trying to ramp the
ball to the third man region . a shot which is fraught with danger in the longer format where there are a lot
more closing fielders behind the wicket. The selectors have given a long rope
to Sehwag and Gambhir and at least one of them needs to be dropped at this
point in time. There is always the counter argument that the upcoming Australian
is a crucial series and the tried and tested players need to be given one more
opportunity to come back in form. To be honest neither of the two even look
like getting into any sort of form at the present moment.
The time has come where the Indian team will have to bite the bullet and take
some brave steps in order to make the transitional phase as smooth as possible.
The players who are scoring consistently
at the first class level must be rewarded at the right time.
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