Cricket:Australia Massacre India in Perth!

Australia

massacred

India

on the very first day of the third test in Perth today. The famed Indian batting strength is no more. Not even on paper! The celebrated cricket stars of Team

India

have failed again and again, and yet again! Not even one scored even a half century. The likes of Sehwag, Dravid and Dhoni were utter flops again. Very Very Special Laxman did nothing but ordinary once more. Only the finger-pointing Virat Kohli struggled to reach an individual score of 44.

India were bowled out for just 161, in similar manner as in Sydney or even in Melbourne. The demolition squad of Australia—Siddle and Hilfenhaus—was amongst the wickets today too. If Pattinson was there in action maybe the Indian innings could have folded up for less than hundred runs! His replacement, Harris, was also helped by magnanimous Indian batsmen to get into top form.

Worse followed. In the Australian innings a lackluster Indian skipper Dhoni did not even think of giving the ball to Ishant Sharma who featured prominently in the historic Indian win at the same venue in 2007-08. Australia scored freely and merrily at the incredible run-rate of nearly 6.5 an over reaching 149 for no loss in 23 overs at the end of the day’s play. While Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s witch-hunt for the hundredth hundred continued pitifully David Warner scored a quickfire century for Australia. India lost the third test too in the very first day.

Now what? The seniors must leave immediately. But how to fill in the blanks? All the newcomers or most of them are selected only on the basis of their IPL (Indian Premiere League T20) performance where they sparkle for few minutes and make it to the one-day format. If they play one solid innings in one-day matches they get selected for the national Test team. But in what way they can be termed as ‘test players’?

Forget pointing fingers. Just try to follow the example set by Aussie skipper Michael Clarke who wants to be remembered as only a good test player and who has shielded himself from the possible damage of T20 format of the game. Is there any Indian cricketer who can do that—can he say ‘I’ll not play IPL anymore and be a good test player who can make the country proud’? Hello, any takers?

Else, there are just two options for the commerce driven Indian cricket board—scrap IPL or ban Test Cricket in India and for India.

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