Come Thursday and Indian cricket would begin its 2012-13
season with the first test against New Zealand. For many it’s nothing more than
getting back into business but things would no doubt be different this time
around thanks to a gaping void left by the absence of a certain Rahul Dravid
and VVS Laxman.
After a decade and the half the Indian dressing room
would not feature the two men who have been the backbone of cricket in India.
Following last year’s 8-0 thrashing at the hands of England and Australia the
beginning of the Indian campaign would have been tougher in the absence of
Dravid and Laxman but for the second lowest ranked test side as the adversary. Could
this be the reason why the selectors persisted with an almost similar line-up
barring Chateshwar Pujara, who replaces Dravid? With Laxman’s surprise
retirement call, the selectors have decided to give S. Bardinath a shot but
barring him it seems like they have decided to blame themselves and not the
players for the abysmal English and Oz summer.
Pujara showed great poise and determination to be a
worth successor to Rahul Dravid in his debut against Australia 2010. He last
played on the South African tour of 2011 and is now back after a long injury.
His 252 runs against the West Indies during the India A tour has kept him in
the reckoning and India would hope that he continues with the same form.
As always there is little that the selectors did to
prepare for the domestic series against England and Australia later. Life after
the golden generation was going to be tough and while the selectors kept egging
the seniors like Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Laxman to call it quits they did
little to face the future. With Dravid and Laxman gone the replacements like
Pujara and Badrinath have only 20 tests between them as opposed to majestic
duo’s joint 298. It seems like the men who run Indian cricket specialize in
filling round holes with square pegs and hope that things would just fall into
place.
India’s bowling depends on R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha
and although they did well in the domestic series against West Indies, they
couldn’t get the opposition out on many occasions in England and Australia.
Nothing can explain the inclusion of Piyush Chawla who hasn’t played a single
international match since the 2011 World Cup and it’d be nice if one knew just
how long should Ishant Sharma be included in the line-up. He hasn’t lived up to
expectations for quite a while now yet there seems to be no clarity in his case
like the one applied in Irfan Pathan’s , who, once again, is sidelined.
The selectors would hope that India’s batting with the
likes of Virat Kohli, who shows great promise in spite of being just eight
tests old, along with the troika of MS Dhoni, Virendra Sehwag and Gautam
Gambhir would make things work. Of course, there’s the old warhorse Sachin
Tendulkar, ever present to serve Indian cricket but to think that this could be
the test side of the future would be hasty. The three oncoming home series
would still be dealt with but the real test begins when this young team, or a
team without Dravid and Laxman, goes abroad.
India and New
Zealand would play two tests and two T20 matches starting August 23, 2012
This article was originally written for Buzz in Town.
Image- Times of India
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