LONDON, 23 August — The injury, if there was one, to Ajay Ratra paved the way for Parthiv Patel to become one of the youngest wicketkeepers in the history of the game. The youngster who looks even younger than his 17 years was fast-tracked into international cricket from under-19 cricket and has not even played first class cricket in India.

By the looks of it he is comfortable in the heat and fire of Test cricket and his wicketkeeping technique has come in for praise from old pros like Farokh Engineer and Ian Smith, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper. Not all those fast-tracked into international cricket go on to be successful and most of them fall by the wayside very quickly.

There are previous instances of players going on to make a name for themselves as players and then some of them have even gone on to captain India. The one player fast-tracked to the captaincy was ‘Tiger’ Pataudi and that too because of an injury to Nari Contractor.

After playing in only three Test matches ‘Tiger’ was appointed as vice-captain to Nari Contractor for India’s tour to the West Indies. When the awful injury to Contractor ruled him out of international cricket, ‘Tiger’ took over for not just the next three Test matches but also went on to captain India till 1971 when Ajit Wadekar replaced him.

Wadekar’s appointment was hardly welcomed by the media and even though Wadekar led India to three consecutive series victories, two of them overseas, he was always referred to as a ‘lucky skipper’. Sure, Wadekar didn’t have the charisma ‘Tiger’ had but he had the common touch which meant that players under him were able to go to him at any time for advice and would not only get a patient hearing but good sound advice too.

With two young wicketkeepers around India’s problems of finding a wicketkeeper may well be a thing of the past. The problems of finding a reliable pair of openers and bowlers who will take wickets still remain. There was hope when Wasim Jaffer played fluently in the West Indies that Das and he would be the pair of openers India was looking for with Das the solid one and Jaffer combining technique with strokeplay.

Das’ double century in the tour game means that Jaffer might have to yield his place to the little opener for the next two Test matches. Jaffer too has looked bemused by the early movement of the ball in England but his problem is more of temperament. If he can only give the bowlers the one hour when the ball is new, hard and swinging then he will be able to flourish.

He has only to look at the discipline Sehwag showed on the first morning of the second Test when the ball was swinging all over the place to see how a bit of restraint could go a long way. He keeps pushing out at deliveries rather than playing close to his pads and body and that is getting him into trouble. It is here that he needs to discipline himself.

The pitch at Leeds is supposed to be a result pitch and if the weather there holds to its usual ways then there will be help for the bowlers to swing the ball. Apart from Zaheer Khan the other bowlers have been a disappointment for they have not utilized the conditions well.

To an extent they have been handicapped by the field set for them which has been packed in the offside leaving very little margin for error on the leg side. So a bowler like Agarkar who has tried to get his outswing to move from the middle stump has been clipped away to the vacant midwicket and square-leg areas for boundaries.

The gully position for Indian bowlers is mainly a superfluous one and what is needed to make the bowlers feel a lot more confident is a deep third-man so that unnecessary fours are not conceded. Sure at the start of the innings when the ball is doing something and there is a bit of pace and bounce in the pitch Nehra and Zaheer could do with a “widish” almost “backward-pointish” fielder for the uppish sliced drive but after the ball has lost its shine and the pitch has eased out then it would be to the team’s advantage to stop those boundaries going in the vacant third-man area.

Saurav Ganguly is a quick learning captain and very flexible and that is the best part about his captaincy. He is not afraid to change tactics if one plan is not working but his only weakness seems to be insisting on a gully fielder.

Harbhajan Singh has signed up for Lancashire which is good news for him but as bowlers from overseas have found out over the years the counties expect them to bear the brunt of the bowling for they reason that he has been paid to do just that.

While English players who come to India do not bother too much about trying to understand the local customs and culture, they on the other hand are unforgiving if an overseas player does not join them in their after cricket welfare.

So when Ganguly did not join them and preferred to spend time on his own they were quick to call him ‘Snooty, Arrogant’ and ensured through their ‘nudge-nudge, wink-wink’ methods to tarnish his image. Harbhajan therefore better be prepared or else he will also find himself called all kinds of names. Of course if like Muralitharan he picks bags of wickets then he will be forgiven if he sticks to his friends and not mixes with his teammates.

But before all that Harbhajan has to show that he can win matches for India overseas too and he has the chance to do so in the next two Tests. (Professional Management Group)