MUMBAI: At present, there are two distinct faces of Indian cricket in the international arena.
One has of late evolved and is so naturally bubbling with youthful exuberance that it dominates the shorter version of the game.
The other is represented by players most of whom have probably overstayed their tenure and are struggling to meet the challenges of even the more leisurely version of Test cricket.
One is not saying this just on the basis of the worst humiliation suffered at the hands of Sri Lanka in the first Test at Colombo. The assessment is on the way the senior players have so far gone through the motions. The bunch that was being described, till only Tuesday, as India’s “fabulous four” and hailed as the best batting lineup, flopped as never before.
It appeared as if they all had forgotten the art of playing spin bowling. Further, they were atrocious in the field.
To cap it all, Anil Kumble looked so jaded that he was even reluctant to bowl long spells. It all boiled down to a matter of fitness.
The reaction to this terrible performance was bound to be adverse. But no one put it more bluntly than former Indian captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. “It is high time the senior players announce their retirement, or else they will soon have to face the ax,” he said in a television interview.
It is indeed a shame that some outstanding young players like Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tewari and Badrinath have to wait indefinitely for a chance to play Test cricket. It is just as well that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the leader of the young brave hearts, has kept himself out of the current Test series.
The unmistakable divide in Indian cricket today stands further accentuated, with the younger band exerting more and more pressure on the seniors.
Players cannot command a place on the team based on their past record, however fabulous that may be. They have to perform as well, if not better, than the next man in the queue, which, at the moment, is getting longer. The national selectors who have done an excellent job of cutting out dead wood and selecting a youthful team for the shorter version of the game, should now use the ax to rejuvenate the Test side as well.
Some in the present senior brigade may yet redeem themselves somewhat in the two Tests to come.
But that will only be a temporary reprieve. The selectors must look at fitness as much as they look at the performances. The future planning should be on a long-term basis.
