The Indian team has had a consecutive drubbing and whitewash in tests, first at the hands of England and now Australia. An 4-0, 4-0 score-line doesn’t look good in any sport, and especially in cricket – given our best-ever batting line-up, arguably – this is shameful if not downright disgraceful. With legends like Sachin, Dravid and Laxman leading the charge and other greats-in-the-making like Sehwag and Gambhir, not doing themselves and their nation a single favour in the just concluded down under tests, there have been a lot of cries for their heads. In a recent poll by a leading media-house, even Sachin Tendulkar, the God of cricket, has 1/3rd Indians rooting for his removal from the test team here on!
I was pondering over the same, and wondering whether as a nation we have such impatience built into our DNA, or do we have such short memories that we forget and overlook the achievements of these same cricketers of very recent past, which we were revelling in and celebrating. Why, just a month ago, Rahul Dravid was second only to God, having scored the maximum test runs in the world in 2011, with 5 centuries coming last year itself, in the process becoming only the second batsman after Tendulkar to score 13,000 test runs in the history of cricket. Just a few months ago in November 2011, Laxman was being hailed as the unsung hero of Indian cricket, when he scored 176* against the West Indies in the 2nd Test at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, which India won by an innings and 15 runs. And what can one say about Tendulkar? Yes, he’s had a very strange & longest-ever run of 22 test innings without a century, but watching him bat in 2011 was pure magic. His elusive century of centuries notwithstanding, the man looks 20 years younger in his aggression and stroke-play, and such is his batting prowess right now that even one of his harshest critics like me is left wondering if his detractors have chosen the right time for seeking his departure.
As regards Sehwag, all I’ll submit is that the man plays like the way he plays. You can love him or hate him for it, but you can’t ignore him. A proof of his genius & dangerous abilities lies in his ODI world record double century in 2011, which made him only the second batsman after Sachin to achieve the feat. This, of course, is not made in a test match and purists may argue this is comparing apples to oranges, but his innings still is testimony to the way he bats in any form of cricket, and I’d happily pay every time to watch him play. His opening partner, Gambhir has struggled in tests the whole of 2011, but if one is to look at what he provides to the team, one look at his ODI average of 56.90 in 2011 – including his World Cup Final winning inning of 97 – is enough to demonstrate his class. Not for any other reason was he the most valued player at $ 2.4 mn of the IPL auction of 2011.
Moving away from these 5 great men, I’d also like to spend a minute here on our captain, M.S. Dhoni – the man with the Midas Touch. He’s done so much for India’s glory in the past 3 ½ years at the helm – winning the T20 World Cup, winning the ODI World Cup, and taking India to Numero Uno in Test rankings – that it is almost blasphemous for him to be castigated the way he’s being castigated for his uninspiring captaincy and failure with the bat. One would do well to remember that he’s no bunny with the blade. In fact, he scored a big & brisk century in November 2011 in the Kolkata test innings victory against Windies, and still has a lot to offer to Indian cricket. It may be time to infuse younger, less tired hands behind the stumps, but I feel that India needs to persist with Dhoni as a batsman and the shrewd captain.
Yes, India has not been doing well in away tests. But the reason lies beyond our batsmen. Yes, they have failed individually and as a unit. But our bowlers haven’t also done anything to write home about. We’ve not been able to take 20 wickets to win a match. In fact, the pressure of chasing humongous totals by the Aussies in almost every match has overcome our batsmen, and cut through their nerves and gut. The fielders also haven’t done much to prevent the run-riot of the Australians. So, why lay the blame at the batsmen’s door only and ask them to leave?
It is time for some introspection about what all ails the team, and how the World’s No. 1 Test Team has declined so suddenly and so steadily. Part of the blame rests with the cricketers, but there are enough questions around preparing the right pitches at home for preparing the team to play on bouncy wickets abroad, the team training & mentoring process, the selection policy that needs to focus on the future without giving up the present, et al. All these are grave pressures that the team has to encounter, and adding to the pressure that our players already face is our nation’s obsession with winning everything or being damned. I’m particularly amused and curious about the last one, since I rarely come across such passion in personal lives of people. How come we don’t measure ourselves with the same yardstick that we use for measuring our cricketers? How come we don’t care about being the best and winners in everything we do, or at least in our chosen professions? Why, there are so many times, we don’t even try! And yet, we have the obnoxious arrogance to pronounce death to our heroes who’ve done so much for Indian cricket and our personal happiness in the past!!!
So, let’s not jump to any sentimental & irrational conclusions and ask for heads to roll for these losses, unless we get to the root cause of the same and work towards removing that cause rather than our players. For, if we don’t do that and go ahead and take short and easy measures like removing a few off-colour players, we’ll be akin to the Mad Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, who keeps shouting “off with her head” without a single right reason, and without a single right cause being served by the same.
© Shailesh Nigam, Varun Khanna (for respective articles)
