MUMBAI: As the Indian team launches into another Test series against Australia, it has unwittingly braced itself for a battle within as well as without.
Sachin Tendulkar has described the India-Australia clash as the biggest in Test cricket. Not many will agree with these remarks because, just a few years ago, he had said that there was nothing bigger than a series between India and Pakistan, even though the old intensity of that battle has diminished.
But what Tendulkar ought to as much worry about is the battle within the Indian team, that entails a definite clash of interests between the seniors and the younger lot, who are pressing hard for a reorientation and a new look to the Indian team.
How many times in the past few days have Tendulkar himself, Ganguly, Dravid. Kumble and Laxman said over and over again that they are not going to retire as yet. Ganguly, in particular, has been blowing hot and cold over the issue and the latest is that he will retire after the present series is over.
What is bugging the seniors ? It is their fitness for sure, but it is also their failing form. What is another great matter of concern is the consistency and the eagerness with which young players are performing. Of the batsmen, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina and even the enigmatic Yuvraj Singh, have been displaying their best form. Only the other day three of them hit centuries against the same Aussie team that is now in Test battle.
With the exception of Rahul Dravid, none of the seniors would ever pass a strict fitness test. Tendulkar has been spending the last few years recovering from one injury or the other. He hasn’t played a single match in the last two months. Ganguly, Laxman and Kumble are poor movers in the field, Laxman even between the wickets. On the other hand, all the youngsters are brilliant in the field and raise the side’s fielding out of the rut in which it has fallen.
The one thing that the younger players cannot be accused of is the lack of respect for seniors. M. S. Dhoni has gone on record as saying that he wouldn’t dismiss the utility of the senior players “but they are being weighed down by the burden of their own glorious past record.”
The new, professional selection committee did not do anything imaginative. But, if the seniors do not perform, it will be terribly unfair to keep deserving youngsters waiting for too long. Only performance can help the Indian team beat this Australian side. The warning ought to have gone to the experienced “Perform or perish.”
