The team’s hard-earned legacy in the five-day game is eroding fast, especially at home. But with all the focus being on chasing White-Ball glory, right from a cricketer’s junior years, an effective turnaround may require more effort than the stakeholders may be willing to make.GUWAHATI: It was right after Day Four of the second Test against South Africa in Guwahati. India were staring at one of their most humiliating series defeats in recent times, but the focus of the stakeholders of Indian cricket was on something else. A gala was being staged in Mumbai. The schedule of the T20 World Cup was being announced. India’s former all-format captain Rohit Sharma was there, as was current T20I leader Suryakumar Yadav, along with Indian cricket board (BCCCI) mandarins. There wasn’t a single discussion pertaining to the impending red-ball disaster. The stage was being prepared for the next six months of a T20 fest which was going to rule the heads and hearts of Indian cricket fans.
India, after their 408-run loss — biggest in terms of runs in their 94-year Test history — have already hit the white-ball button. Coach Gautam Gambhir is with his entourage in Ranchi, so are ‘RoKo’ and the rest of the bandwagon for the ODI series that starts on Sunday. Everyone is hoping that the abject surrender in Guwahati — India’s fifth defeat in seven Test matches at home over the last 13 months — will be a mere speck on the horizon if the white-ball teams succeed.It’s Gambhir’s professional compulsion and he can’t be entirely faulted. “If we have to do well in Test cricket, then we’ll have to prioritize the format. It cannot happen that a week before a Test series against South Africa at home, we are playing a white-ball series in Australia,” Gambhir said after the team’s loss here. While that’s one part of the story, the performance of the Indian team in the South Africa series suggests that the current lot aren’t best equipped to play Test cricket at home. The fact that Simon Harmer, a 36-year-old journeyman off-spinner, claimed 17 wickets in the two Tests underlines India’s frailties in a sector where they were masters of the craft even a few years ago — playing spin. Ravichandran Ashwin, former Indian offie with 537 Test wickets, made a very pertinent point. “The problem of playing spin started a few years ago when the control of the pitches for Ranji Trophy games were taken away from local curators. The focus was on preparing good pitches with pace and bounce and neutral curators were appointed across the country. It allowed many of our new-age players to get better against fast bowling, but they lost their grasp over spin,” Ashwin said. India’s recent overseas record is a perfect indicator of Ashwin’s point. Against Australia Down Under, India lost 1-3, but they were very much in the game till the last session of the fifth Test. In England, the same team that got crushed against South Africa at home played out a creditable 2-2 draw, with the Indian top-order batters getting a bucketload of runs.
Juniors disinterested?
Over the last four years, the Indian U-19 team has played only three four-day series — two against Australia and one against England. People who want to see India do well in Test cricket are not at all happy with this. The entire focus of the U-19 cycle is on white-ball cricket, with the U-19 50-over World Cup being the focus. It means the Cooch Behar Trophy — the national U-19 red-ball tournament — has lost its importance and sheen. Gambhir has been criticized for choosing bits and pieces allrounders ahead of specialists in the team, but sources in the know say that even selectors at the junior level are fixated about choosing such players. “The junior selectors are rated by what the Indian team does in the U-19 World Cup. So their focus is on trying to find cricketers who can do a bit of both. So right at the grass roots, the players’ technique and temperament are moulded by the requirements of white-ball cricket, because they know a good U-19 World Cup can give them a good IPL contract,” a former selector said, adding that if Chetesh war Pujara was playing U-19s, he would have played only four games a year. Former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta, who does a lot of coaching, feels if India are to become a force again in Tests, they must identify red ball talent and insulate them from white-ball cricket. “It’s basic technique. To be successful in the white-ball, it is important that the bat comes down from the gully region so that it opens up scoring options. In red ball, it is important that the bat comes down straight, because defending is as big a part of the game as attacking.
“If we have to produce good players in red-ball cricket, young players with good technique should get financial incentive, be allowed to learn the ropes and stay away from the lure of T20s,” Dasgupta added.
No quality red-ball players?
Does India have enough good players for international red-ball cricket? With the likes of Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Reddy failing woefully and Shreyas Iyer opting out of red ball cricket, there are many holes to fill. It appears that the likes of Karun Nair and Abhimanyu Eashwaran, too, are unlikely to be considered. Though the next Test assignment is eight months away, one understands that the selectors may look at someone like Ruturaj Gaikwad, whose technique has impressed those who run the game in the country. Even though Ruturaj is a big hit in the IPL as CSK captain, he also has a healthy first-class average of 45.59 and is known to be one of the better players of spin bowling. With Sarfaraz Khan falling off the radar and unlikely to regain the trust of the team management, Rinku Singh is another player whose Ranji Trophy performances should be taken note of. The KKR left hander, a terrific player of spin who turns out for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy, has a first-class batting average of 59.3. He bats at No. 5 and his 176 against Tamil Nadu in Coimbatore a few days ago in UP’s winning first-innings chase of 455 was a throwback to the old-school grind. Another player who has caught everybody’s attention of late is Smaran Ravichandran, a left-hand batter from Karnataka. “He has a first class average of 78.3 but the selectors need to see him more in the India ‘A’ set-up. He has played 13 games and the selectors need to see how good he is against the short-ball,” a source said. Among bowlers, young Punjab off spinner Anmoljeet Singh is an interesting prospect if groomed well. Those in the know say that the 18-year-old has the qualities of becoming a good off-spinner even at the senior level, but he needs to be handled carefully. Dasgupta says that it is important that the BCCI starts organizing more camps like they used to earlier. “Why not have camps that we used to have before a red-ball series? Former greats, too, can be called for such camps,” Dasgupta said. The next Test series is eight months away and it remains to be seen how BCCI reacts to the recent debacle and whether it takes corrective measures.
