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September 12, 1997
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Far from the madding crowds...
L Sivaramakrishnan
Much has been said, more written, about the Indian team's lack of victories in recent times.
Scapegoats have been suggested, excuses given, close scrutinies made and explanations arrived at.
And after all this analysis and comment, nothing concrete has really emerged, leaving the ordinary cricket follower with the feeling that there is something missing.
And finally - appropriately, too, given that we are now engaged in celebrating the 50th year of India's Independence - the two halves of a country that was once whole will meet in neutral territory - Toronto, Canada - and the Indian team will look, yet again, for that elusive win, this time against traditional rivals Pakistan.
Tired perhaps of being blamed for each successive exercise in team selection, the national selection committee has this time round picked what they, and many others, believe is the best team possible.
In the past year and a half, the selectors have tried every possible combination in the book - and little, if anything, has worked. Each time they picked youngsters, and just when each young player seemed to be getting into his groove, he found himself out of the side. So much so, that in recent times the permutations and combinations almost seem to defy the laws of arithmetic, let alone logic. In fact, the members of the Indian team almost seem to mirror those of the national government - here today, gone tomorrow.
Why does this come about? The way I see it, the main reason is that players have not always been picked on the basis of potential and then groomed to fit into their allotted slots in the squad, but rather on the current form of the player. If a player is picked for potential, he has a chance to grow into the team - in the pick-on-form system, what has been happening is that all it takes is one bad match for the player to find himself out of the side.
At this point, one can only hope that Indian cricket is perhaps going through a liminal state - from which, hopefullly, it will emerge as a potent force.
From the general to the specific, the team for Toronto shows a blend of youth and experience - experience in batting, that is, and youth in bowling.
Srinath and Prasad, the twin spearheads of India's attack, are both out through injury. Anil Kumble, who at one time put the fear of god into rival batsmen, has not been in the best of form recently, and is being rested. Which leaves us with a situation where Robin Singh and Abey Kuruvilla are our most experienced bowlers - a telling comment on the lack of maturity and experience in the bowling line up.
In contrast, the batting lineup is a different story. It is strong, with a good deal of depth - starting off with Sachin Tendulkar who is ranked among the best in the world. Saurav Ganguly has shown superb form especially in Sri Lanka on the recent tour, and provides Sachin with the right kind of support at the top of the order. He needs, though, to improve his running between wickets especially in one-day cricket. And the gamble Sachin took in promoting Robin Singh to the number three slot appears to have paid off, too - with the hard-working Robin proving that age does not hinder a talented player. Not only has he come good with the bat and done his bit with the ball, but his fielding saves India a good 20 runs each time.
It is always good to see Azharuddin in form - when he bats like he did in the recent tour, it is enough to get any fielding skipper worrying about where to bowl to him, and what field to set - and the fact that he is easily the best fielder in the side is merely a bonus. What is special about Azhar is that he is the kind of batsman who can, when in touch, turn the fortunes of a side, swing the game his way. In other words, a match-winning batsman when in good touch - and that is how he looks now.
Another batsman to watch out for is Rahul Dravid. He has been the
backbone of the side's batting for the last year and a half. True, his form was none too good on the recent Lankan tour but then, a batsman of his calibre rarely if ever goes through a lean patch for too long.
Kambli, who with Ganguly is an experienced left-hander, can play useful roles thanks to his ability to hit big and get quick runs. Interestingly, he bats well with Dravid at the other end - witness Chennai, where both batted superbly when India chased a mammoth 328 against
Pakistan in the Independence Cup fixture.
Saba Karim has been chosen to keep over Mongia, obviously because the selectors believe that Karim is more suited to the one day game, with his ability to go for the big shots. He has got good runs in domestic cricket, but I still see his selection as somewhat of a gamble, thanks to the fact that he is not all that consistent.
Which brings us to the bowling - the least experienced department in the team and, given that we are going up against the strong Pakistan batting lineup, the most crucial.
Given that Robin and Abey are the two most experienced bowlers in the side, the captain will look to them to lift their level of performance even higher, since they will not only need to contribute substantially, but also guide the raw youngsters in the side.
I thought Mohanty showed promise
in Sri Lanka, and bowled with a lot of courage and aggression - both of which were rewarded with the wickets of players like Jayasuriya and
D'Silva, who rank among the best batsmen in the world today. Before leaving for Toronto, Mohanty was in Madras to pick up some valuable advice from ace Australian quicks Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson - and that should be some help for the emerging quick. Though he is not perhaps the most attractive or
rhythmic of bowlers to watch, this sometimes works to his advantage
because batsmen tend to get deceived.
Harvinder Singh, the newbie in the side, played for India A in Dhaka and finds a place in this squad thanks to the absence of Srinath and Prasad. He has, I was told recently, been short-listed by the MRF Pace Foundation, and will train here in Madras after he returns from Toronto and Pakistan. For him, this tour is an opportunity to hone his natural skills, and to learn - the way he shapes will go a long way towards making him a more regular member of the side, even after Srinath and Prasad return to the fold.
In the spin department, we have Rajesh Chauhan who has been out of international cricket for some time thanks to a suspect action. He is back after being cleared by the experts, and hopefully the Lankan experience will have got him over the comeback nerves. In Lanka he was bowling on flat batting tracks which had nothing in them for the spinners - with different wickets in Toronto, he should be able to make more of a contribution.
Nilesh Kulkarni, the left arm orthodox bowler, I thought fitted well into the one day format. He tends to depend on bounce and nip in the wicket rather than on spin and turn. Again, this tour will for him be an extension of the learning experience that began in Sri Lanka - because here, like in Lanka, he will be bowling to a batting lineup that is very good at playing spin.
Hrishikesh Kanitkar has come in to replace Kumble - and how good a replacement he will be remains in the realm of guessowrk for now. been brought in to replace Kumble. To my mind, he is more of a top order batsman who can bowl a bit, rather than a bowler who can bat. He's had a good Ranji season, but he would need to keep in mind that the gulf between domestic and international cricket is pretty huge.
All told, my feeling is that we shouldn't be expecting anything wonderful by way of results from a team as young and as inexperienced, in a crucial department, as this one is. Which in turn means that we have to think of the future, think of ways to make the side settled, solid - because only a settled team develops the consistency you need to get good results.
Too often in recent history, we have picked bowlers for their 'potential' and dumped them unceremoniously without giving them time to grow, to come into their own. And that to my mind is wrong - as things stand, the pressure on new players is to not just perform and learn as they play, but to work miracles on debut. And this is the kind of thing that can kill them off for good.
I think the emphasis should be to spot potential, to pick players for the right slots, then to nurture them, groom them for the future. And this has to be done now, before the older and more
experienced players retire from the game, so that the transition
will be a smooth one. Unlike, I must add, the present transition, which is rather too stormy and unsettled for my liking.
A problem area is fielding. Trainer Tej Kishan Kaul has been giving the players an intense workout during the pre-Toronto camp in Delhi, though it is debatable just how much a trainer can accomplish in just four days. Still, one does hope that the team, thanks to a bit of rest and then the fitness training, is fitter now, and that key areas like fielding and running between wickets will improve - they will need to, if India is to perform on level terms with Pakistan.
Running between wickets in fact is to my mind the real key, more perhaps than fielding. Because too often in the recent past India, chasing big totals, has ended up just a few runs short at the very end - and that indicates that it is not finding the boundaries that are the main problem, it is that we take too few quick singles.
One definite plus is that India will be playing Pakistan on neutral ground - which means a lot of the pressure from expectant fans of either country will be missing. And with it, some of the tension that surrounds encounters between the two nations. And that should be a definite boon for the younger, less experienced players who in any event have their work cut out for them without the additional tensions that go with an Indo-Pak series.
But then again, enough speculation and analysis - within 24 hours, we'll begin getting the answers anyway. Here's to a tough, intense contest - and may the best team take the honours.
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