When Zaheer Khan stopped dead in his follow-through and bent down to feel his right hamstring that fateful summer afternoon at the Lord’s, not only Zak, but Indian cricket was hamstrung.
The World Cup glory is now a forgotten dream, its shattered remains buried at Adelaide where Australia wrapped up a 4-0 whitewash on Saturday.
India have now lost eight successive away Test matches, their worst performance in more than four decades.
So, where do they go from here?
It wasn’t the first instance that India lost in “alien” conditions. But public memory is short. As soon as the players return home and start scoring runs in heaps again, the past troubles are conveniently forgotten. Until, of course, the next away tour comes up.
Time to infuse new blood
The right time to stem the rot is now. Consider the numbers: Virat Kohli, on his maiden Test tour to Australia, outscored those in the team who have been here at least four times, five in Sachin Tendulkar’s case. Crucially, he scored more than all Australian batsmen except skipper Michael Clarke and his predecessor Ricky Ponting.
“For a player who was supposed to be the weakest link in the team, with his back-foot technique being questioned, he hasn’t done too shabbily. It shows when you have the hunger to perform and the energy to do it with, reputation and past records do not matter,” says former India skipper Ajit Wadekar.
“India would have been better served if they had taken fresh legs to Australia, rather than those who are well past their prime.” Kohli is the newest member of India’s top six and leads a bunch of talented youngsters, who were either warming the benches Down Under or were kept at home while the established superstars were being embarrassed by a fiercely competitive Australian side.
The fact that a talent like Rohit Sharma is yet to reach the world stage in Tests is puzzling. India were touring the Caribbean last summer when Duncan Fletcher first saw Rohit and said, “I don’t know why you are not playing Test matches. You can make it to most Test sides in the world,” Rohit, before leaving for Australia, told this newspaper recalling the portly Zimbabwean’s words.
Need to groom youngsters
With India’s next Test series against New Zealand at home months away, Rohit and Kohli would very likely form the core of the team in the longer version, with players like domestic cricket’s run-machine Cheteshwar Pujara, talented southpaw Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Abhinav Mukund rotating around them. But are they good enough for the long haul?
“It’s a peculiar situation,” says former India skipper Ajay Jadeja. “We have a bunch of greats who are ageing rapidly and there is talent to replace them, but they’ve not been groomed specifically for Test cricket. Whatever opportunities they’ve got is in ODIs and Twenty20s. “The slogs and swipes that work in IPL can’t be used in Tests, especially on alien, bowler-friendly tracks.”
Former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar says: “It’s a systemic problem. There’s never been initiation into Test cricket for youngsters in our setup — they don’t get enough chances when the established cricketers are playing. Now, when the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman retire, these youngsters would suddenly be thrust on to the big stage and told to perform like the seniors.”
Australia had faced a similar situation a couple of seasons ago when Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer retired one after the other. But they had players like Clarke and Shane Watson, who had been groomed for years to take over the responsibilities. In fact, Peter Siddle was part of the Australian side that lost the Test series 0-2 in India in 2008-09, and was hammered then. But he was persisted with and now leads the pace attack.
Lose, look in the eye, win
“There is no option but to blood the youngsters. India may lose a lot of matches initially, it will be humiliating at first, but it is the only way. As good as they were, if Mohinder Amarnath or Sunil Gavaskar had continued to play Tests till they were 40, Sachin Tendulkar might not have debuted as early as he did,” says Wadekar.
“To think that Rohit Sharma and other youngsters would all be 27-plus by the time India tour Down Under next in 2014 is a shame,” he adds. India may not get to the top of the ICC Test list soon. The likes of Raina, Kohli and Rohit haven’t set the set the stage alight in Test cricket, but they are, without doubt, Indian cricket’s biggest hope.
Results might not show immediately but in two years, when India return to Australia, they can take solace from the fact that they at least gave their best shot.
All about a ton
Not counting the Adelaide Test, there’ve been 110 centuries hit in international cricket since Tendulkar’s 99th hundred during the World Cup. Clarke, Kumara Sangakkara, Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor and Rahul Dravid have in the meantime scored five international centuries each; Ian Bell, Alastair Cook, Mike Hussey and Mohammad Hafeez have each hit four.
Tendulkar, meanwhile, still searches for his 100th one. He will get it sooner or later but the question is, what happens if he calls it a day soon afterward?
Business plans
* Well, post-retirement, like Sourav Ganguly, most players will split time between IPL and commenting on the game as experts. There are plenty of things to keep their plate full even otherwise.
* Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Eager to open and run a chain of schools and sports academies
Virender Sehwag: Has set up a sport-oriented school in Jhajjar, Haryan. and has invested in a mango pulp factory near Bengaluru.
* Zaheer Khan: Owns Zk’s restaurant in Pune. Plans to set up an 8,000-square-foot hotel spanning three levels in the same city.
* Sachin Tendulkar: Owns two restaurants in Mumbai – Sachin’s and Tendulkar’s. Has his own line of healthcare and sports fitness products under the brand name “S Drive” and “Sach”.
** BCCI’s dilemma: What strong stand can the BCCI take? Agreed, the seniors are over the hill, unable to perform well, but the gen next players belong to an IPL generation — hit and run! Will it be a worse scenario?
Send us your views, titled BCCI’s dilemma, to: info@deccanmail.com
