Champions Trophy Vs Congress Atrophy!

We're talking about cricket here, from the point of view of Indian cricket; but mixing it with politics isn't something that was never heard of! We published here kind of a rant post during the disastrous down under India tour which was so, not primarily because of the run-less performances of the stalwarts, but also because of the politics of selection and clout. The heavyweights naturally cannot be disposed of easily which is why they figure in the Team for Champions Trophy-2025 too. 

Leaders and politicians spend a helluva lot of time announcing the CM or PM faces as the case may be. Similarly, the cricket mandarins and selectors have managed to announce the squad only after more than ten days of serial huddles. This is typically political! Isn't this? 

Now, Congress--the oldest national political party of the country--is in the throes of deadly atrophy! So much so that quite a few parties of the Alliance which was formed recently, have threatened to abandon Congress while one or two have already decided to fight the elections on their own. Why? Because Congress is still being run by the old guards, in their seventies to nineties, as per their whims or no-scruples and thus effectively preventing young blood to get into the body, apart from the so-called dynastic clout. 

You see the point now? The Team India squad is the 'cricket' example of the heavyweight politics where many meritorious youngsters cannot ever manage to get into the body. Experts justify this by citing the difference between the red and the white ball cricket. But basically, they don't have the balls to protest enough! 

Politics runs through everything--let it be elections of any kind, governments, bureaucracy, sports or even family homes. With the billions lurking everywhere, Indian cricket thus has the biggest stakes for all who do politics and love to influence and rule!  

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!

Please Don't Hype Rishabh Pant!

Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has rewritten the history of another Indian cricket great Yuvraj Singh. No doubt about that, and cricketers and fans now call him the miracle player. While Yuvraj fought and conquered a rare form of cancer and made a brave comeback to cricket, Rishabh fought and conquered a near-fatal car accident in 2022 and made an astounding comeback to cricket in 2024. Not only did he come back but has been playing tremendous cricket in the IPL-2024 and then now in the first Test against Bangladesh with a superlative attacking century, apart from keeping wickets.

Amid the well-deserved international acclaim came the comparison with MS Dhoni--some cricketers saying he has broken Dhoni's record in terms of the number of Test centuries in less than half of the matches Dhoni took to score. Veteran wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has righteously pointed out that comparison with the legend is unwarranted at this stage. We fully endorse his view and request all to desist from hyping this terrific young player and just allow him to go on playing spectacular cricket on the field. Despite his achievements he's still a learner, in view of his tremendous potential for the future of cricket. Breaking a few records doesn't make one great, it's the test through the years that finally puts him/her in the top position. MS was not just a wicketkeeper, he was the Team India captain, establishing Indian cricket in the new aggressive order, the Finisher made India win many matches/Series and those invaluable knocks need not necessarily include tons. To be very specific, Pant will take much more time to match Dhoni's wicketkeeping abilities and reflexes. In short, such comparisons are totally not the need of the hour.

Besides, we have to examine what happened in the past. Rishabh had begun very well in 2017-18, particularly in the away Tests in England, and he was so overhyped that he got selected for Team India in the World Cup-2019 when a blazing Shikhar Dhawan unfortunately got injured, and despite India having the most experienced keeper-batsman-captain in the team. And what happened? The puzzled selectors had to look the other way as Team India happened to accumulate as many as four wicketkeepers in the playing eleven, leading to disastrous consequences.

Shortly afterwards when Dhoni cleared the way for the overhyped, the same began to falter on the field and the search for a wicketkeeper continued unabated. During 2021-22 Rishabh Pant roared back to form with incredible Test performances against Australia in Australia. And he got back to being hyped again in the media. What happened next? He nearly finished his cricket career in a car accident. That he's come back in full bloom, as we said earlier, makes him a great resilient spirited human being, and definitely not a subject for the hype.

Incredible, miraculous, performing human beings do emerge on earth, but their path is always fraught with dangers thanks to fellow beings' envy, jealousy, egos and of course, over-attention amounting to hype, because of all of which misfortunes keep on happening to them.

Therefore, leave Rishabh Pant alone with his aims and dreams, and allow him to go on mesmerizing us with his spectacular antics on the field, thus bringing glory to the country and to the beautiful game of cricket. We wish him a tremendous future ahead!

India Vs Australia T20I Cricket: India Now Looking More Like the Team It Had Been!

Although the ‘experiment’ scare is far from over Team India is now looking more like the one it had been in the national sense as regards the international tournaments. Doing justice to the expectations of a decider the third and last T20I match in Hyderabad last night went down the wire keeping the thrill on till the penultimate ball of the match. It was a high-scoring match in a pitch that helped both the batsmen and the bowlers. Australia put up an imposing target of 187 runs for India after Rohit Sharma won the toss for the second time. And India skillfully handled the early losses of both their openers with Virat Kohli (63) and Suryakumar Yadav (69) having a rollicking partnership of 104 runs thus nearing the target with enough wickets left. However, the ride was still not without thorns as the Aussie fast bowlers started delivering beauties and scoring boundaries was difficult. With the demolition-man Suryakumar gone Kohli and Pandya got into some kind of a spot—India needing 32 in 3, then 21 in 2 and finally 11 in the last over. Before getting out in the second ball Kohli did an immense service by hitting the first ball of the last over by Sams for a six and the target got tantalizingly reduced to just 5 in 4 balls. Dinesh Karthik came in and scored a single off the third ball. Pandya failed to connect a outside-off wide fourth ball and with the wide not given the equation got a little tough with 4 runs in 2 balls. Luckily, Pandya managed to nick another wide ball and the lone slip fielder missed it. It went to a four in the third man area and India won the match by 6 wickets and the Mastercard T20I Series against Australia 2-1, thus providing the much-needed impetus for the team to go to Australia next month for the World Cup.

 

The defending World T20 Champions Australia would’ve much liked it to go home with a series victory to prepare well for the tournament in their own turfs. Apart from the match being a very close one that could’ve gone in either direction there were huge positives for Australia though: it fought all-out to win the first match and could’ve won the next two also; their pace and spin bowlers coming good most of the times to put the hosts under pressure; their batting depth remaining perfect as ever to help the team come out of any adversity; and the revelation that Cameron Green as an opener proved for the team and the management. This exciting new-age power-cricketer has become a tremendous prospect for Australia in the coming World Cup and his sparkling performance has put up question marks for the retention of quite a few stalwarts including even the legendary Steve Smith in the playing T20 eleven in the World Cup. Refreshingly enough, Green has debuted successfully in all the three formats during the last two years only. In this match he notched up his second half century (52 in just 21) and also bowled beautifully and economically.

 

The last five-over woes continue to rattle India though with their bowlers conceding too many runs in those death overs consistently in the last few internationals. Of course, the main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah has come back to the team, but it’d be unrealistic to expect him to strike immediately after almost rusting for weeks. More hopefully, now in the company of Bumrah the other class pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is set to pick up soon. For the second time, spinner Axar Patel stole the show by capturing three vital wickets apart being part of the crucial runout of Glen Maxwell. This time he was joined effectively by Yuzvendra Chahal who removed Steve Smith early. Their efforts reduced Australia to a precarious 117/6 in 14^th over when Tim David came to the rescue with a brilliant innings of 54 in 27 balls. Daniel Sams did a cameo of 28 in 20 balls to aid David and the team. Next, India meets South Africa at home too in the last three-match T20I Series before the start of the World Cup. Pandya is supposed to be rested for that Series; we pray against more experiments and the only exception should be Rishabh Pant who was dropped for the third match.

(Photos from bcci.tv)

Amidst the Rohit Blitz Karthik Had His Moments as India Level T20I Series Against Australia!

Chasing a tall target of 91 runs to win in 8 overs (the second T20I between India and Australia was reduced to 8-overs a side due to rain affected pitch and outfield) captain Rohit played out of his skin remaining not out at 46 off just 20 balls to steer India to a win by 6 wickets against Australia before a packed house in Nagpur. He kept his cool and hit some terrific shots all around the park as he has been known for despite the failures of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. For a change, we’ve used ‘India’ instead of ‘Rohit Franchise’ because the team finally looked like a national team with main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah coming back and batsman-keeper Dinesh Karthik retained notwithstanding what happened in the first match. This is not at all due to India’s win. Of course, one of the main weapons for a national side Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped or rested as he’s been giving away crucial runs in his second spell in the last few matches. However, the fact that the IPL rookie fast bowlers have been consistently given the privilege of bowling the last over could’ve affected his confidence and form. Even with Bumrah around the last over in this match was also handed over to Harshal Patel and that over cost a lot of runs.

 

Earlier, during the extended pre-match panel discussion Sunil Gavaskar had welcomed the inclusion of Bumrah for the do or die match and made a far more important observation that with Bumrah or Shami bowling from the other end Bhuvneshwar just gets transformed bowling to a tight length and getting the rewards too. Gavaskar also welcomed the move to retain Dinesh Karthik saying that Karthik has always been a finisher and a team would love to have him coming in at a crucial juncture. His comment simply means that a ‘finisher’ must be utilized before the match gets actually finished.

 

In the match played last night, 23^rd September 2022, we justifiably had a nightmarish thought about having to watch Axar Patel coming in when a struggling Pandya fell in the fifth ball of the penultimate over and India still needed 14 runs in 7 balls. But to our heartfelt relief we beheld Karthik coming in occupying the non-striker’s end as Rohit did cross over during the Pandya catch. As a cruel blow to the Aussies who again saw themselves back in the match the sixth ball was a wide coming from an experienced Pat Cummins and the next ball was hit for a four by Rohit; the final equation being reduced now to 9 runs in the last over. Karthik was facing the last over.

 

He hit the first ball of the last over by Daniel Sams for a huge six and then the next ball for a resounding four. And the match was over as Rohit rushed to embrace Karthik. The ‘finisher’ sent ahead of Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel at long last seized the opportunity to prove his mettle and helped his team romp home to 92/4 with 4 balls to spare. Well, giving your key players the trust and confidence almost always works. Now what happens next is eagerly awaited as both the teams clash for the decider in Hyderabad tomorrow; the ‘experiment scare’ just refuses to leave us alone.

 

Put in to bat Australia had captain Finch blasting away in a determined frame of mind to seal the Series. But Rohit just then produced a masterstroke handing over the ball to Axar Patel in the very second over with, mind you, Bumrah around. Axar first affected a Kohli-fueled brilliant runout of the first-match destroyer Cameron Green and then clean bowled the dangerous Glen Maxwell for a first-ball duck in the last ball of the same over. Probably as there were only 8 overs to be bowled in all he was not taken off and was given the fourth over too, and in that over Axar clean bowled Tim David. He effectively prevented Australia from running away with a 100+ total in spite of the late charge by Matthew Wade (43 not out in 20 balls). Adam Zampa did more than an Axar capturing the top three Indian wickets, but could not force a win thanks to Rohit and that each bowler could bowl only two overs each. Josh Hazelwood was the most expensive Aussie bowler giving away 20 runs in 2 overs.

Is The Dinesh Karthik Riddle Over Now?

Continuing with the Asia Cup-2022 legacy and the experiment-legacy since time IPL the swashbuckling Team India management, the dead- ‘wall’ coach and the devastatingly discerning selectors had once again preferred batsman-keeper Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant in the playing eleven pitted against the T20 World Champions Australia in the first of the three T20Is in Mohali on 20^th September, 2022. Keeping up with the ‘traditions’ Karthik came in to bat after the supposed all-rounder Axar Patel and was still lucky enough to have four overs to play out. Unfortunately, he could not capitalize on this golden opportunity and perished cheaply. Not only that, he failed miserably to read a suspected LBW ball to convince his captain Rohit Sharma to go for a DRS. As the replays showed the ball hitting the leg stump clearly Rohit vented out all his pent-up anger on the poor but experienced Karthik. Rohit’s magnanimously displayed public anger could perhaps also be the result of the ceaseless accumulation of the same thanks to the ‘stakeholders’ described at the outset.

 

During Asia Cup-2022 that the hosts Sri Lanka won magnificently roaring back into tremendous form the stakeholders included both Karthik and Pant in the second league match and then decided to forget about the former in the crunch matches. This time, however, things could be much firmer and more decisive. As we already said Dinesh Karthik had scored an all-round failure-laden outing in the match, he seemingly gave sound enough reasons to the constantly-experimenting-scheming stakeholders to rule Karthik out on a permanent basis thus justifying the esteemed management’s outstandingly long-lasting ‘kindness and understanding’ to ‘experience’ while basking in the spirit of experimentation; this ‘experience’ also has an unmistakable Dhoni ring that surfaced during the times of the devastating (for India) ICC Men’ World Cup-2019. We need not worry at all as far as the riddle called Dinesh Karthik is concerned because it is set to be crystal clear in the second T20I against Australia tomorrow.

 

The dead- ‘wall’ coach has vindicated his age-old preferences very ominously now: Yuzvendra Chahal is to be played in every possible eleven irrespective of how he bowls and to be denied rest at any cost; Hardik Pandya (he displayed tremendous batting in the first T20I against Australia) is now a confirmed batting all-rounder along with Ravindra Jadeja whose injury could well be the ultimate cause of Rohit Franchise’s possible downfall (God forbid!) in the coming T20 World Cup; Jasprit Bumrah is to be kept on indefinite rest till he is ‘exclusively fit’ for the World Cup; the batting order has to be an ever-alterable variable, never a constant; encouraging the captain to insist on bowling the same bowlers (mostly five in number) irrespective of how they bowl till their quotas are fulfilled and to immediately take a bowler who captures a wicket in his first over off the attack; and contradictory contempt for youngsters cum veterans like Ravi Bishnoi or Deepak Chahar or Ravichandran Ashwin while welcoming the other, mostly youngsters, players as the future of Indian-Cricket (read IPL).

 

The unpredictability of the dead-‘wall’ coach is also as glorious as of the game itself. One of the consistently striking bowlers in all formats, Mohammad Shami, was benevolently considered meritorious enough to be included as one of the reserves for the T20 World Cup; but unfortunately, he caught the COVID virus perhaps due to the wantonly liberal ‘rest’ he was conferred with by the omniscient stakeholders. But horror of horrors of unpredictability! Umesh Yadav who was nowhere to be seen in the playing arena for quite some time was not only included in the revised reserves but was also played in the first T20I against Australia.     

 

That the Rohit Franchise lost against Australia despite putting up a formidable total in excess of 200 runs had been a forgone conclusion. Call it the result of the ‘price’ to be paid for the ‘essential’ process of experimentation so mind-blowingly required to finalize the playing eleven in the World Cup or the reign of the glorious uncertainly or the dead-walled team management or whatever. The call is yours as you must bear with the future of Indian Cricket (read IPL). As a vital reminder you have to take notice of the only experiment that Australia made while chasing—asking their rank-new bowling all-rounder Cameron Green to open with captain Finch and the former breathtakingly took the match away from the dazed Indians. Having said all these rather dubious things the final outcome of the T20 World Cup starting in Australia from 16^th October 2022 could still change everything for Indian Cricket (don’t read IPL) for the better, hopefully.

Two Weeks Of Ukraine Invasion, The Sumy Rescue And Cricket Tragedies!

Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has entered Day 14 leaving a trail of devastation and loss of lives across the country. We pointed out earlier that the war was totally unnecessary, and now it seems abundantly clear that it was in the interest of the West that Russia did invade Ukraine so that the latter’s strategic presence in Europe could be checked, if not eliminated. The surprising resistance by Ukraine is mainly thanks to the baits by the West in terms of entry into the European Union and a membership in NATO. Russia also made a mistake by not anticipating the support to be extended to Ukraine by the US, most European nations and other strategic allies to fight the war. The main objective of the Western allies seems to be the justification to impose the economic sanctions to isolate Russia in a bid to force it to submit. But unfortunately, they’ve decided to ignite a dormant volcano instead by ignoring its demands, also as strategic as theirs, and by abandoning the universally accepted method called international diplomacy.

 

President Biden has been maintaining that ‘Putin cannot defeat Ukraine’ which means that he along with his allies expect a protracted war so that at the end an isolated and economically bleeding Russia calls it a day. However, the Biden allies have conveniently forgot that by isolating Russia, a major supplier of natural gas, petroleum and weapons, they have nearly plunged the world into an economic crisis—a global economy just recovering from the Pandemic. Crude oil prices have touched almost $140 a barrel and with the US decision to ban all Russian oil imports can further accentuate the oil fire. Among other countries it could hit India in the most severe way because India has already been suffering from insufficient consumer demand to boost the economy. With the assembly elections over it’s to be seen how long the government can fend off the inevitable price increase in petrol an diesel.

 

President Zelensky has let the cat loose. First, he demanded NATO to declare No-fly zone in Ukraine; NATO refused, obviously because it would mean a war between Russia and America, possibly a Third World War which could be nuclear if Putin’s threats are taken seriously. Then, Zelensky wanted more arms, weapons and fighter aircrafts from NATO, in a way, directly asking NATO to involve itself in the war and to protect Ukraine. Thwarted on all requests, the Ukrainian President is now crying hoarse calling it a betrayal by the West and that he would give up his on his promised NATO membership. And, that’s exactly what Russia wants. Putin has been saying clearly that he would instantly end the war if Ukraine gives up on its aspirations to join the EU and the NATO. Well, at the same time the rights of a sovereign nation to do what its citizens desire cannot be repressed, whatever be the strategic interests of whatever power blocks.

 

In the meantime, a humanitarian crisis with unbearable consequences had been developing in the Ukrainian city of Sumy where around 700 Indian students were trapped in the bunkers as food, water and other amenities were drying out. As the attacks outside intensified they were even frightened to switch on the electricity at those endless nights. There seemed to be no way out to evacuate them as it was extremely dangerous to venture out in the missile-raining streets. We must commend the efforts of the Government of India by not giving up and resorting to the much-forgotten diplomacy. A tripartite diplomatic mediation between Russia, Ukraine and India resulted in Russia agreeing to declare ceasefire in four cities to ease the process of civil evacuation. Yesterday, the Sumy students were moved out to Poltava by road, then moved to Western Ukraine by trains and finally to be airlifted to India. We must congratulate the die-hard efforts the Indian Air Force, the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and of course, the pilots and staff of Air India (now operated by the Tata group).

 

Moving to other fields of world affairs we must mention the double-tragedy suffered by Australian Cricket losing two of their veteran cricketers—wicket-keeper batsman Rodney Marsh (74) and the legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne (just 52)—within 24 hours on 4^thMarch 2022. Shane Warne, undoubtedly the best-ever leg-spinner in world cricket with his 708 Test wickets (the first to reach that mark), has been fully active in cricket even after his retirement in 2007. He played for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL apart from his other international assignments. We have been aware of him all the time as he never failed to comment on the performances of Team India in its international matches. Warne, fondly called Warnie by his pals, reportedly got three months of leave from Fox Sports for whom he had been working, and went to Thailand to start his much-deserved holidays along with his friends. Tragically, the very next day he was found unresponsive in his room. His friends did CPR on him and then it was done repeatedly at the hospital, but the legend could not be revived.   

 

It is indeed hard to put away Shane Warne from our cricket-loving minds. When he dominated the Indian batsmen, prominently Sachin Tendulkar, we admired him, and when he was hit all around and out of the park by Tendulkar, we loved his open admiration and wonderment at the living legend’s prowess. This had been typical of the essence of Warne’s personality who lived his life on his own terms and was not bogged down by the few controversies thus created. And we really feel great talking about the times of the greats. Shane Warne has been bestowed the 4^thplace in the list of Wisden Cricketers of the century along with the greats of Donald Bradman, Garfield Sobers, Jack Hobbs and Vivian Richards.

 

Earlier on 4^thMarch Rodney Marsh passed away—a cricketing great who excelled during 1971-1984 as a wicket-keeper batsman and created history of achieving a record 355 Test catches behind the stumps, mostly combining with the lethal fast bowling legend Dennis Lily. Of course, we could not watch his antics on the field as in those times our only means of tuning in to cricket had been the radio commentary. Interestingly, both of Marsh and Warne had had very ordinary debuts. And more disconcertingly, Shane Warne had twitted his condolences to Rodney Marsh’s demise, not knowing his own destiny. We cannot still believe Warnie is no more.

 

Meanwhile, India made mincemeat of a listless Sri Lanka in the first Test at Mohali winning by an innings and 222 runs. The highlight of the test match is the tremendous comeback of Ravindra Jadeja into the Test team after months of nursing an injury—he made a historic 175 not out in India’s defining first inning total of 574 and went on to take 9 wickets in the Sri Lanka two innings with a fifer in the first innings. Now, Jadeja could justifiably be termed as one of the greatest all-rounders in world cricket. Earlier, India swept the 3-match T20I Series 3-0 where Jadeja also figured prominently. 

(We acknowledge wikipedia.org, alzazeera.com and google maps for the images.)

Indian Cricket: Who Would Be Or Ought To Be The Test Captain?

The sudden stepping down, somewhat inevitable, of Virat Kohli from test captaincy has started a raging speculation in India about who would be or ought to be the new Test captain. Earlier in the year 2021 we had suggested a split-captaincy regime, particularly after the stand-in Test captain Ajinkya Rahane led India to an incredible Series victory over Australia in Australia overcoming the 36-all out syndrome and the departure of Virat for home. Rahane had been the test vice-captain for quite some time and therefore, there should’ve been no hassles to make him the regular captain, relieving Kohli the burden of captaining all three formats. In hindsight, we can say that had that decision been taken Kohli would’ve continued to be the white-ball captain thus the confrontations and ego-plays between BCCI and Kohli could’ve been avoided. However, that was not done, and during the last one year Rahane has been in very poor form and perhaps he had played the last innings of his test career three days back in Cape Town. So, Rahane is out of any contention for test captaincy. For similar reasons, Cheteshwar Pujara cannot be considered either.

 

KL Rahul has been an ideal test player, but thanks to reasons unknown he was mostly left out of the test playing eleven except for the latest South Africa series. In this series he captained the second test in Johannesburg without much to be noticed about his leadership and that is the only experience of test captaincy for him. Although he has been captaining an IPL franchise, this cannot be taken as a justification to appoint him as a national test captain. Instead, he should always be in the test playing eleven as a no.3 batsman rather than trying out all means to play him as an opener. He is rock solid, dependable and a fluent batsman at no.3 positiion which is applicable to all three formats.

 

Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar has strongly favored batsman-wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant for the post while talking to a private news channel. But we feel that at 24, Pant is too young and too inexperienced to take charge of a very important position. Again, captaining an IPL franchise is not justification enough for the appointment. He is also a headstrong and an impulsive cricketer often going for very adventurous shots, be it tests or the shorter formats, and making hay only on his day. Further, in the just-concluded Test Series against South Africa his scores had been indifferent but for a 100 in the last innings of the tour, that too for a losing cause. Rishabh first has to cement his place in the test team with dependable and consistent batting. If youngsters are to be considered for a long-term plan then Shreyas Iyer would be a better option, because he is almost sure to make it to the test team after the consistent batting failures displayed by the older batsmen in South Arica. However, in all such cases of experimenting with youngsters they have first to be groomed under an experienced skipper like Virat had gained so much from MS Dhoni.

 

There is another option of considering a bowler for the job. In this scenario the name of Ravichandran Ashwin comes to the fore, because he is very experienced and successful, possibly the best India spinner at the moment, both at home and away, and very handy too as a batsman with two centuries. In fact, Virat Kohli came under a lot of criticism for leaving him out of the playing eleven in most matches in the last two years, particularly in Tests. It’s been a long time since a bowler was given the captain’s job in Indian cricket.

 

Therefore, at least for the time being, the natural choice seems to be Rohit Sharma who is already the regular white-ball captain and would definitely lead Team India into the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 to be played at home during October-November. Apart from the emerging fact that Rohit too has become too big a superstar for the comfort of the BCCI and has often been in and out of the team due to injuries or ‘personal reasons’ which makes it rather tricky to give him the charge to lead in all three formats, he continues to be the ideal choice at least till 2023. During this time youngsters like Rishabh or Shreyas and also the regular vice-captain KL Rahul can be groomed for the job in the long term. Whatever be the decision it ought to serve Indian cricket in the best possible interests for its future in international cricket. All is not well in Team India at the moment, fans like it or not.  

India Beat South Africa In Centurion After Rains, Collapses And More!

 

India beat South Africa by 113 runs just after lunch on the fifth and final day of the first Test in Centurion today, conquering the fortress called Centurion. This grand victory is the first ever to be registered by India at the SuperSport Park in Centurion and in fact, Virat Kohli becomes the first Asian captain to do so. The Proteas, set a target of 305 runs to win, started badly yesterday losing four early wickets for 94 runs; but thanks to captain Dean Elgar (77) they managed to reach 182/7 at lunch today with Temba Bavuma (35 not out) and Marco Jansen (13) at the crease, the last pair with some batsmanship abilities. However, immediately after lunch Mohammed Shami devoured Jansen, his third victim in this innings, thus taking his match tally to 8 wickets after his definitive fifer in the SA first innings which completed his 200 scalps in test cricket. The last two wickets of Rabada and Ngidi were taken by the lone India spinner R Ashwin, as the hosts were all out for 191 runs, even less than their first innings total of 197. A fiery Bumrah is the other bowler to take 3 wickets while Mohammed Siraj took two.

 

This has been one of the most tense and eventful test matches in world cricket. India won a crucial toss to opt to bat and on the very first day KL Rahul started an equally crucial 117-run opening partnership with Mayank Agarwal, staying unbeaten till the end of the day with 122 runs. India, at 272/3, were eagerly looking to resuming the next day aiming to build up a total over 400 runs. As luck would have it, rains started in the morning of the second day and the frequent spells led to a complete washout of the second day, a heavy setback for India early on and raring to go.

 

As normally happens after rains or weather interruptions the first collapse of the match happened with the visitors losing all their 7 wickets for just 51 runs in about 16 overs thanks to brilliant spells of fast bowling by Lungi Ngidi who took 6 wickets, India finishing 327 all out, seemingly a good total, but immensely attainable by South Africa on their favorite home track. The Indian foursome pacers, however, had other plans. They engineered the second collapse of the match as Bumrah cleaned up SA captain Elgar in the very first over. Combined with Shami and Siraj they reduced the hosts to a tottering 32/4. Thanks to a partnership between vice-captain Bavuma (52 not out) and wicket-keeper Quinton de-Kock (34), and a late charge by the tailenders the visitors managed to reach 197 runs, giving India a lead of 130 runs which could have been more, but yet was crucial on a deteriorating track. India lost Agarwal early as they were 16/1 at stumps on that fateful third day when 18 wickets fell.

 

India played steady and defending till lunch on the fourth day taking the score to 79/3, possibly getting into a shell to not allow the SA pacers to ignite another collapse. And collapse it turned out to be eventually, the third of the match; but for an entirely different reason. There was a weather forecast for rains on the decisive fifth day, and India having already suffered from a rain washout wanted to ensure they didn’t lose because of rains. Captain Kohli took a calculated risk by going all-out for runs, and wickets started falling in heaps as everyone tried to hit the ball hard for boundaries. They did score a quickfire 95 in just 18 overs with 34 by Rishabh Pant in 34 balls before getting bowled out for just 174 runs; but most importantly, they set a very challenging 305-run victory target for the hosts which, of course, could’ve been 350. Besides, as per the stats no team had ever successfully chased a target of more than 251 runs at this SuperSport Park, Centurion.

 

The signs of the fourth collapse of the match were visible immediately in South Africa’s chase as India gave them almost three hours and a full day to achieve the target or draw the match if the rain gods came to their help on the last day. The hosts ended up the day pitifully at 94/4 with captain Elgar not out with a half century. Shami struck in his first over clean bowling Aiden Markram for 1 in his first over. Then Bumrah and Siraj partook themselves fully in the demolition job that resulted in a momentous victory today to help their team go up in the Series with a 1-0 lead, after the glorious away-series victories over Australia and England which makes the year 2021 a historic one for Indian cricket.

 

Virat Kohli is very emphatic in praising his bowlers who he said are always capable of bowling out any team on any surface, particularly Shami who can bowl effectively at home or away due to his seam-position and line and length. He also applauded the great determined effort of the player-of-the-match KL Rahul, the only centurion in Centurion, that set up the game favorably for India. He added that Centurion has been a great challenge for decades and after this magnificent achievement his team is looking forward to the second Test beginning at the Wanderers, another challenging track, in Johannesburg from the 3^rd of January 2022.

 

For South Africa there have been only two half centuries in the two innings, by Bavuma in the first and by Elgar in the second. Captain Elgar admitted the lack of application shown by their batsmen in both innings. Their famous pace-battery too failed to show their mark in the first day which turned out to be definitive for them in spite of the rain interference. The Proteas would be all tails up for the most important encounter coming up in Johannesburg to stay alive in the 3-match series.

 

On the other hand, India would like to seal the Series in the second test banking upon the gritty performance of the team. But a few concerns do remain: Cheteshwar Pujara, despite a let off by Rabada that looked to be a protocol catch, failed to advance beyond 20 after a duck in the first innings and he is really now on the brink of losing his position; captain Kohli too is not being able to be amid runs as per his standards and he has been without a century for two years now; and the India middle order still looks a bit brittle with an unpredictable Rishabh Pant and other deemed all-rounders. Nevertheless, the present team, with or without minor changes, looks immensely capable of repeating its feat at the Wanderers and win the Series and the last frontier.

England Vs India: And India Batting Clicks, Take An Unbeatable 2-1 Lead In The Test Series!

In an innings that mattered most the Indian batting clicked in the second innings of the fourth Test match at the Oval right from the top to the bottom with the sole exception of Rahane who went for a duck. Facing an intimidating deficit of 99 runs India hauled up the highest of the Series total so far of 466 runs with their openers Rohit Sharma and Kl Rahul going about it very methodically—the former notching up his first ever away century (127) and KL Rahul (46) who was the lone centurion for India in the first three matches, unfortunately, fell short of a much-deserved half-century, at least. Pujara joined Rohit and between them they put up a 153-run partnership, and Pujara, going strong at 61, again failed to take it further to a deserved century as he missed one in the third Test too, getting out for 91 runs. Kohli maintained the momentum, but again fell for 44 runs, unable to take the way for a long innings he is mostly used to, and Jadeja (17) coming ahead of Rahane could not make it big this time. There was a bit of concern with India at 312/6.

 

Shardul Thakur

Rishabh Pant, luckily, found his touch and was able to achieve his first fifty of the Series, and pacer Shardul Thakur did it again, picked up his second consecutive fifty (60) of the match, and later in the England reply took up the prized wickets of Burns and captain Joe Root who could not be the cause in this match. After that Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah—the new-found batsman—and Siraj contributed well to ensure a mammoth target of 348 runs for England to win.

 

Joe Root

England started very well with their openers Burns and Hameed remaining not out at stumps on the fourth day, and then on the last day today launched a century partnership with Burns getting out first for 50 at the score exactly 100.  But after that England wickets fell regularly with the tragic run-out of David Malan early on, and Bumrah and Jadeja striking deadly blows later—the former clean bowling Pope for 1 and the dangerous Bairstow for a duck while the latter taking the scalps of Hameed and Ali. If England entertained any idea to challenge the target it was gone now. When Thakur clean bowled Joe Root for 36 with England reduced to 182/7 the match was in India’s pocket. England finally was done for 210 runs. India won the the Fourth Test by 157 runs which happens to be India's second Test win at the Oval after fifty years, the first win being in 1971.  

Virat

 It must be mentioned here that Indian captain Virat Kohli handled his bowlers quite professionally, switching between them strategically—getting a breakthrough almost every time. All the bowlers except Siraj, one of the heroes of the second Test, were among the wickets. This victory gives India an unbeatable 2-1 lead in the Test Series with the fifth and the last Test starting from the 10^th of September 2021. And the victory comes following an innings defeat and India getting all-out for 78 runs; like in Australia when Rahane did wonders of winning the Series after being bowled out for 36 in the previous Test. The fifth match is likely to be fought tooth and nail as the hosts would definitely want to share the honors.

 

A few questions for India remain unanswered though. The precedence of Ravindra Jadeja over Rahane in the batting order for the second time is as inexplicable as keeping India’s best spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who is also a sound batsman with two tons eternally in the dressing room. However, as long as the team keeps winning everything is justified. Only the form of Rahane is becoming a big concern. His decimation in the batting order is also demoralizing for the star batsman. High time he proves to be a match winner again, more aptly in the fifth Test to script another Indian overseas series victory.

England Vs India First Test: Joe Root Engineers Collapse Of India’s House Of Star Cards!

Photo: espncricinfo.com

England captain Joe Root did the right things from the very beginning of the first cricket test against India in Chennai: winning the crucial toss and naturally electing to bat on a track that is known to turn from the third or the fourth day; scoring a double ton that helped his team build a mammoth first innings total of 578, neutralizing the three Indian spinners on their home turf; having his spinners and pacers, particularly James Anderson rally around restricting India to 337 which is largely thanks to a few of India’s Australia-resistance heroes, keeper Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin; being always wary of India’s elusive but documentary batting depth and not risking to bat last on a turning track, and therefore, not enforcing the follow-on; despite having his team out for a paltry 178 in the second innings still allowing his team enjoy a rather amusing target of 420 for India to achieve in just over a day; and having Anderson strike three crucial blows in the morning session of the last day, paving the way for a oft-repeated Indian collapse.  So then, he played the ‘Root cause’ for England’s crushing win by 227 runs over India, leading the World Test Championship Series 1-0.

 

And India, oh dear! Over the decades we’ve been witnessing classic Indian collapses on the last day facing a daunting task of either winning outright or drawing, except for a few monumental occasions including that in Australia in the recently concluded Test Series. In the same Australia Series we had seen the 36-all-out syndrome by Virat Kohli’s India, and then stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane engineering a historic resistance to win the Series 2-1. In this particular cricket new normal first test in Chennai, India, with all its star players back, was expected to bat on for the next two days and thus achieving a likely draw.

 

However, that did not happen. All of the Indian top batting order except for Cheteshwar Pujara failed to launch a fitting reply as the English spinner duo set about beating the masters in their own game. The duo of Bess and Leach accounted for 6 vital wickets in India’s first innings while the three Indian spinners fought hard to capture 5 in England’s first innings. A huge run deficit of 241 proved to be the turning point for the home team, and despite its spinners finally coming into the frame and skittling out the visitors for 178, we were treated again to the time-tested spectacle of the Indian team marching towards an inevitable end with defeat written large at every spot on the field.

 

Although it is only the first of the four test matches, the result yields some scope for introspection. The contrast is extremely marked: even a less than a second-team India rallied around in Australia against the mighty home opponents while the strong reinforced full-strength team faltered on their favorite spinning home turf. Losing the toss cannot be termed as the only causative factor, apart of course, from the Root Cause. It’s only natural to get your star players back in the team that, in this case, included the captain himself. But the star players must perform and cannot take their places for granted. For example, opener Rohit Sharma failed in both of the innings as if continuing from his Australia tour; the captain also failed in the crucial first innings and his campaign for a losing cause in the second innings is hardly any justification. The three Indian spinners failed to apply any pressure on England in the first innings, and this would perhaps bring into picture the exclusion of Kuldeep Yadav or going for an extra fast bowler with the hero of Australia, Mohammad Siraj decorating the dressing room. Ajinkya Rahane too fared miserably in both innings, and this brings to us another angle.

 

Is everything alright between Kohli and Rahane? It’s often seen that Rahane performs poorly in Virat’s team and proves himself otherwise, as if free of any tether. Rahane’s captaincy, as displayed in Australia and elsewhere in limited openings, is strategically interactive, thinking and calculatively aggressive to Kohli’s strategy of aggression based on instinct and impulses. While we cannot deny Kohli as the best Indian captain on record in all three formats of the game we still suggested a split-captaincy regime after the Australia Test Series, making Rahane the captain in the test team. There’s nothing wrong in this, because many countries have three captains for the three formats, not causing any humiliation or insults to anyone in the process.

Why Is The Brisbane Test Victory So Important For Indian Cricket?

The Gabba Fortress!

On the 19^thof January 2021 at the Gabba in Brisbane, the dying moments of the fifth and final day of the fourth cricket test match between Indian and Australia, India accomplished the most improbable by defeating the shell-shocked hosts by 3 wickets. Set a daunting target of 328 runs for a win the visitors replied at 4/0 at stumps on the fourth day which meant India had to get 324 runs on the last day for victory. The Indian team, already written off by many an expert after the catastrophic 36 runs all out in the first test in Sydney thus conceding an easy win for Australia, had a tough job ahead on an unpredictable last-day pitch facing arguably the best bowling attack of the world. Most importantly, the ground is popularly known as Gabbatoir for Australia where the home team never lost a test match against any cricket team since the last 32 years with an unbelievable tally of 24-0 wins. Therefore, at best, most of the cricket experts and fans expected India to somehow save the match by standing out the day and draw the Series. Against a forecast of rains the weather cleared up in the morning, perhaps to witness one contest of immense proportions.

 

Cricket lovers across the globe were to stand witness to one of the most incredible chapters of world test cricket. Mixing caution with aggression the Indian batsmen launched a campaign for outright victory, despite losing all-stars opener Rohit Sharma very early. Rock-solid Cheteshwar Pujara (56) acted as the anchor at one end while the other opener Subhman Gill (91) and captain Ajinkya Rahane, although briefly for 24 runs, carried on with their attack on the Aussie bowlers from the other end. Pujara held the fort till the arrival of the player-of-the-match Rishabh Pant whose talent has been discussed widely by cricket experts and fans for more than a year with almost no concomitant results, delivered, after a glorious 97 runs in the drawn third test in Sydney, the final blow hitting the winning four with just about 2 of the mandatory overs left in his unforgettable individual score of 89 runs not out.

 

And India breached the Gabbatoir, after 32 years, proving amply that Australia is never invincible even in their favorite fortresses. They had retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy winning the Test Series 2-1 coming after Virat Kohli’s first-ever test series victory in Australia against Australia in their 2018-19 tour. Shell-shocked, indeed, is the word that described the reactions of the Australian team, the Australian media and their cricket experts. We have already seen the tremendous importance of this victory for all stakeholders concerned. However, there are several other crucial takeaways from this memorable match that we mention as below:

 

·       The Gabba victory along with the four-test Series victory marks one of the most resilient comebacks for any team in the history of world test cricket. All odds were stacked against India after losing the first test in Sydney and the making of that 36 runs all out in their second innings. Then the exit of the regular captain Virat Kohli, called as disastrous by most Australian commentators/experts, put the team in the tightest of corners possible as they had to overcome the ignominy of the 36-run-all-out syndrome and had to carry on without their history-defining captain. Defying all predictions Team India regrouped under the calm-but-aggressive and the strategic stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane: gave a fitting reply to the hosts winning the second test in Melbourne convincingly by 8 wickets, and going on to stage the historic save of the third test in Sydney by keeping the ferocious Aussie pacers at bay for nearly one and half days.

 

·       Before the start of the final test at the Gabba chips went still downhill for India with nearly half of their team members down and out with injuries, mostly from the body blows they suffered in that Sydney save, that included the main strike bowlers. They drafted in their youngsters, most of them featuring only in one or two test matches earlier and some downright debutants. And, they breached the Gabbatoir.

 

·       India have discovered their incredibly talented bench-strength that would not have come into limelight without the injuries suffered by their mainstay. This is likely to prove era-defining for the future of Indian Cricket, giving the national selectors the run for their money to choose the ‘best’ team. This would also prove to be very helpful considering the fact that players tend to suffer injuries in ferociously-competitive international cricket.

 

·       The victory also marks a significant departure from having players in the national team mostly from megacities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata or others, because most of the gifted rookies like Mohammad Siraj, Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar and others have come from small towns or villages with humble backgrounds, often from the grip of poverty.

 

·       India has proved again and again that super teams like Australia, England and the West Indies are never invincible, even on their home turfs, once the team has the resolution and self-belief in their abilities under any circumstances. Particularly concerning Australia, Sourav Ganguly’s India ended the world-record streak of 16 consecutive Test victories by Aussie skipper Steve Waugh in the Kolkata Test in March 2001 in Australia’s tour of India and Anil Kumble’s India ended Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting’s streak of 16 Test victories without a single loss in Perth in January, 2008, in their Australia tour of 2007-08. Not to speak of the away test series victories against the West Indies and England in 1971, and halting the juggernaut called the West Indies in the 1983 ICC World Cup.

 

·       Team India has also suffered spells of racial abuse from some of the stands during this tour, and sledging by the desperate-to-win Australian players. However, they have managed to come out trumps in this regard too.

·       It’s been proved again how strong is the game of cricket as a unifying force in times of the divisive strategies the world over and the horrors of the year-long pandemic. Simply, there is not a soul left in the Indian Republic who has stopped smiling since that unforgettable day of the 19^th January 2021, and they are going to smile a lot for a long time to come.

 

Long live the game of cricket! Let the spirit of competition of cricket conquer us again and again from the narrow horizons of divisiveness and communalism!