BOMBAY, 29 August 2003 — Indian cricket, at the moment, seems to rest on the vortex of a paradox. On the one side, it boasts of en embarrassment of riches. The competition for the middle order batting positions and the slots of spinners have become furious with a plethora of claimants. On the other, several key players have a question mark against their fitness, leading to an unnecessary cause for concern.
The two-Test series against New Zealand is little over a month away and three top players, explosive batsman Virendra Sehwag, left-arm medium-pacer Ashish Nehra and the highly successful off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, are keeping away from the Challenger series to be held at Madras next month. This series of matches, where 38 of India’s best players are turning out for three different teams, will form the basis of selection of the squad to play against the Kiwis.
Sehwag, who cut short his engagement with Leicestershire in the County Championship on account of a recurring back trouble, is still far from a hundred percent fit. The month-long rest seems to have done little to boost his recovery.
Meanwhile, Sehwag is facing another personal problem. He has already expressed his unhappiness over opening the innings in Test matches and wants to bat lower down. The team coach, John Wright, however, insists that he should open.
There are at least five other contenders for the other opening slot. They are: Wasim Jaffer, Shiv Sundar Das, Gautam Gambhir, Sridhar Sriram and Sanjay Bangar.
A more intense competition is seen in the middle order, which has, besides Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman and youngsters, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif, eager to graduate from the shorter version of the game.
Harbhajan Singh has the same complaint that Tendulkar had, pertaining to a growth between the index and the middle fingers. Tendulkar underwent surgery in the USA and is reported to have had the calcification removed and is now having no pain. Harbhajan went for a similar treatment to Sydney but the doctors there felt that there was no need for surgery and advised physiotherapy. He thus canceled his contract to play for Lancashire. The long layoff, however, hasn’t enabled him to attain a full recovery. The niggling pain has kept him out of match action so far.
Nehra, who had a hairline fracture on his right ankle during the World Cup, went for treatment to South Africa, but has not yet recovered fully. Nehra faces stiff competition from younger medium-pacers like L. Balaji, Avishkar Salvi and Irfan Pathan. Similarly, if Harbhajan is not fit for the series against New Zealand, leg-spinner Amit Mishra and left-arm spinner Murali Karthik will join Anil Kumble in the race for the spinners’ slots.
The doubts over the fitness levels of these three important players emerged because of a cryptic statement issued by the team physio Andrew Leipus, who is quoted as saying: “It is not that they are unfit. It is just that their rehabilitation is taking longer than expected.”
Since India’s international cricketers had a rare period of hibernation, free of any assignments, for five months, everything should have been hunky dory at least on the fitness front for all the players. But it indeed was not so and leaves one wondering whether the idling was not made better use of.
Even during the two-week reconditioning camp at Bangalore, there were more functions than training sessions. There is no doubt that Indian cricket is presently rich in talent. But will that be enough to take on the challenge of first New Zealand and then Australia.
India’s recent record against these two teams has been dismal. Only a highly fit team will help to wipe that out of memory.
