Is This India's Team For The Perth Test?

'There will be a lot of spice to the contest -- there is a reason India is the only team other than England against whom Australia is keen to play a five Test series.'

'I'll watch, as I suspect most fans will -- but this one time, I'll watch with considerable trepidation and, from a fan's point of view, with the hope that the team finds its feet and that right quick,' notes the distinguished cricket commentator Prem Panicker.

I get why Indian authorities would build a wall or use green sheets to keep the country's poor from sullying the sensibilities of visiting dignitaries -- but why on earth would the national cricket team need black tarpaulin to veil its practice session from the eye of fans?

Other than inviting ridicule and causing some heartburn (external link) among ground staff, what earthly purpose does it serve? And which bright spark in the team management dreamed this one up?

All it took to penetrate that veil was for someone to look out the window of one of the high rises fringing the WACA in Perth.

Someone did (external link) -- and the most amusing revelation was that the Indian contingent, now swollen to outsize proportions by the addition of the India A players, played musical chairs.

The unique training method could be to relieve the tedium of skill drills. Or, for all you know, it could be the management's preferred way to pick an opener to fill in for Captain Rohit Sharma, who will miss the first Test so he can attend the birth of his child.

Come to think of it, musical chairs is as good a way of picking a replacement opener as any.

The most logical option would have been to pair Yashasvi Jaiswal with Shubman Gill, who has been opening since his Under-19 days and who debuted in that slot in the third Test of the storied 2020-2021 series in Australia, with scores of 45, 35 not out, 50, 31, 7 and, famously, a superbly compiled 91 that helped power India to a famous win at the Gabba in the fourth and final Test of that series.

What stood out during that debut series was Gill's ability to stand tall and punch rising deliveries off the back foot -- a skill that is worth gold on Australia's bouncy pitches.

The commonsensical thing to do, in Sharma's absence, would be for Gill to revert to his natural position -- but that brings up the problem of filling the key number three slot now that Cheteswar Pujara is no longer in the reckoning.

Much as the batting of Gill and Rishabh Pant powered India's spectacular win in the 2020-2021 series, it was Pujara's obduracy that allowed the others the freedom to play their natural game.

Absent Pujara, India does not have a number three -- and so Gill, a natural opener, had to be forced into that slot.

Abhimanyu Easwaran is seen as a possible candidate -- as stepney in the absence of Sharma, for now, and as a long-term prospect once the Indian captain walks off into the sunset.

To help him find his feet, he was sent on the India A tour of Australia immediately preceding the senior tour, and in two unofficial Tests against Australia A, Easwaran returned the underwhelming scores of 0, 17, 7 and 12.

That gives the team management a headache -- which they will in all probability solve by elevating K L Rahul, Indian cricket's jack of all trades, to the number two slot.

Rahul is 32 years old -- a prime age for an international cricketer, except that his 33.87 average in Tests does not make a compelling case.

This January, he played one Test against England, scored 86 and 22 from the number four slot, which became his thanks to Virat Kohli's absence.

Once Kohli returned for the second Test, Rahul was dumped, and did not get to play the remaining four Tests.

He then returned for the two Test series against Bangladesh, slotting in at number six, and made scores of 12, 22 not out, and 68. That got him a gig in the first Test of the series against New Zealand, where he again batted at number six and scored 6 and 12, after which he was unceremoniously dropped, and packed off to Australia to get acclimated.

There he played one Test against Australia A as an opener -- and made 4 and 10.

At the highest level, what a player needs more than anything else is clarity -- about his place in the side, his role, and what the team expects from him.

That is a luxury that has been denied Rahul, and his less than impressive returns are a testament to the confused state of mind that has resulted from the uncertainty.

Those then are India's choices for the opening slot -- a veteran woefully out of form, and a tyro yet to find his feet.

At the other end is Jaiswal -- a genuine talent, with the caveat that his game is built around the drive.

In Australia, where home bowlers hit the three-quarter length as default option to take advantage of the bounce, they have a saying that the only thing you get to drive is the car you come to the ground in.

The top three slots, so crucial in Australian conditions, are thus iffy. And then there is Kohli, at the crucial number four slot occupied, until his retirement, by Sachin Tendulkar.

Whenever his name is mentioned, that hoariest of cricketing cliches -- form is temporary, class is permanent -- is unfailingly trotted out.

What the cliche merchants forget, or chose to ignore, is that 'form' is what puts runs on the board -- and Kohli has been visibly out of form for a long time now.

Two centuries across 55 Test innings is not the kind of returns Kohli, a batsman proud of his skill, will be comfortable with.

Since his 121 on a tame pitch at Port of Spain in July 2023, his only performance of note was a hard-fought 70 against New Zealand in the second innings of the first Test in Bengaluru -- where Sarfaraz Khan with 150 and Rishabh Pant with an ebullient 99 stole his thunder.

Much of the team's fortunes will depend on how quickly he finds a measure of the sort of form that made him, in his pomp, the cynosure of all eyes.

Number five, again, is an untested commodity. Sarfaraz Khan, the incumbent, bulled his way into the national team on the back of tons of runs at the domestic level, but after that barnstorming 150 in the second innings of his debut Test against New Zealand in Bangalore, Khan has tapered off.

The conundrum for the management is whether to keep the faith, or to consider options such as, say, Dhruv Jurel, the only young Indian batsman to consistently impress during the India A tour.

He is by trade a wicket-keeper batsman, but the management could well consider the option of playing him as a pure batsman.

Another possibility under consideration is opening with Easwaran and Jaiswal, and slotting Rahul into the number five berth.

Pant at number six is a no-brainer, but what then? There are five slots to fill, and three of them go to the quicks.

Jasprit Bumrah, who leads in Rohit Sharma's absence, and Mohammed Siraj are certain to play, and they will bat at 11 and 10 respectively.

The third seamer's choice is between Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Akash Deep. Rana is the quickest of the three, Deep has a measure of form going for him, and Krishna's height and high-arm action is an advantage on bouncy tracks. Whoever gets picked will bat at 9.

Given the uncertainties around the line-up, the team will want to shore up the batting with two all-rounders. Ravindra Jadeja is a certainty -- bounce suits his bowling, and he slots in at number seven behind Pant.

That leaves the number eight slot, with the choice being between Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar.

Of the two, Sundar has recent form to recommend him, as also the fact that he has demonstrated skill with the bat in Australian conditions on the previous tour.

The left-field pick would be Nitish Kumar Reddy, if the management thinks the team will be better served by a batsman who can bowl rather than the other way around.

Perth's Optus Stadium, where the series kicks off on November 22, has hosted a mere four matches since its debut in 2018 when the ground played host to India.

'Good bounce, good pace, good carry,' is what Curator Isaac McDonald told Cricinfo (external link) about the drop-in pitch to be used for the Test -- but he would say that, wouldn't he? In its short career, the venue has seen both tame and spicy conditions, and it is anyone's guess how it will behave this time round.

The last time India toured Australia, injuries decimated the team; by the time of the fourth Test, it was so shorn of fit personnel that at one point it looked like the then coach would have to pad up -- and yet the team still managed to pull off one of the most astonishing wins in recent cricket history.

This time, the team comes to Australia knowing that its chances of making the World Test Championship final hangs in the balance -- if India is to make the grade on its own steam, it has to beat the home team 4-0, an unlikely outcome if ever there was one.

Just about the only thing you can say for sure is that there will be a lot of spice to the contest -- there is a reason India is the only team other than England against whom Australia is keen to play a five Test series.

A rivalry has been building during the past decade; the encounters between these teams now come with an in-built narrative so compelling that it puts butts in seats.

I'll watch, as I suspect most fans will -- but this one time, I'll watch with considerable trepidation and, from a fan's point of view, with the hope that the team finds its feet and that right quick.

PostScript

To quote the inimitable P G Wodehouse out of context, Coach Gautam Gambhir is the sort of abrasive personality who 'walks around wearing a chip on each shoulder, like epaulettes.'

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting made some commonplace remark about Virat Kohli's form -- and Gambhir got his hackles up.

Who is Ponting to talk about Kohli, he should be talking about the Australian team, Gambhir said, displaying both a thin skin and an ignorance of the role of a commentator, which Ponting is now.

Aussie fans and the home media need no excuse to go after visiting teams -- with the prickly Gambhir as coach, they are guaranteed plenty of grist for their mill.

• India In Australia

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com