Border Gavaskar Trophy: Team India A National Museum?

In whole of my ‘aware-of-cricket’ life I’ve never seen my home team in such a pitiable state—in absolute doldrums, no directions pointing anywhere, no will of any sort, a complete absence of a ‘management’ and no team building efforts—since the 0-3 drubbing by New Zealand on home turf till the present moment down under, except, of course, the lone wonder in Perth. Therefore, I’m rather drawn fatally to an arguably merciless mindset of comparing Team India to a national museum. The reasons thereof are very easy to detect: all the preciously historic set pieces are still on a grand display irrespective of if people of a cricket loving nature do grace those with generous footfalls or not; the timings and the duty hours are fixed irrespective of the ‘weather’ conditions as the controllers continue to feel that they must ‘learn’ from mistakes; and that some of the old pieces are only being adjusted here and there without giving any thought to bringing in new and newer pieces of interest or even the time-tested older pieces that have been put unceremoniously in the backburner.

In easier cricketing terms I mean to say that a few of the veterans of Team India are irreplaceable or un-droppable thanks to their gloriously historic past; they keep on pushing the team to defeat after defeat and yet the ‘managers’ still consider them too precious for any ‘unworthy’ action. Members of the team or of the management defy common sense as they think some of the previous decisions were mistakes to be unlearnt: the team under the most successful bowler won the toss, elected to bat and won the Test in an unbelievable way, and then the set-piece skipper coming back after attending to domestic duties to lead the team again still won the toss, elected to bat again and lost the match in a grand way; and since in both the occasions Team Indian batting faltered and tottered to pathetic totals the set-piece skipper felt, perhaps inspired by the managers, that those were grave mistakes, and therefore, he elected to field first on a perfect batting strip at the Gabba after winning the toss yet again. Thus encouraged and enabled, Team India has allowed ‘Headed’ Australia to pave the way for another thumping win as the hosts knew the visitors’ recurring batting accounts, leaving the patriotic fans with the only option of praying for the rains to continue.

No doubt, the set-piece skipper does have a glorious past as an aggressive opener; but since he failed repeatedly against New Zealand and since another in-and-out veteran, promoted to the opener’s slot, played fairly well the apparently cowering captain demoted himself to a much lower order which was magnanimously described by self-interested experts/commentators/mediapersons as ‘selfless’, and that terrific act to no avail. The ‘managers or selectors or coaches’ got totally befuddled as to who in the reserve should be brought in place of whom: one spinner was dropped after the Perth Test despite him playing relatively well and a veteran spinner was given the charge in the Adelaide Test, and then, that spinner was also dropped despite him playing relatively well and another veteran having a glorious past has been given the responsibility in the ongoing Brisbane Test who has so far gone wicket-less. Several other players including those who are much younger as well as promising and also those time-tested older ones we spoke of above have been treated helter skelter for no fault of theirs.

The signals from the Perth Test have been totally lost on the obfuscated skipper/veterans/managers/coaches or the mandarins. A young vibrant team led by an inspired achiever delivered a terrific win, reliving the memories of the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy when a new skipper led a young vibrant team to a memorable Series victory after the set-piece skipper left the team in a lurch to attend to domestic duties. Perhaps, the museum pieces in the team and the new coach have joined hands in a huge mutual collaboration to keep their respective positions safe and secure, and maybe therefore, the new coach has been seen throwing stones in a dark blind alley in gay abandon.

And all the experts/commentators/mediapersons back in the country, called India, continue to be utterly conscious of a possible absence of perks/benefits/packages/tours in the near future with the upcoming bonanza of the IPL-2025, if they decide calling a spade a spade. Brace!