"Details create the Big Picture" - Former Citigroup Chairman
Two successive defeats at home to England have pushed Indian cricket to edge of "fiscal" cliff like US politics at the moment. The reason why I mentioned the quote in first line was because Indian selection has been missing those details not only in this series but also in recent past. The selection changes has been mostly superficial with no attention to details of Captaincy, middle order etc and it has taken Indian cricket on the brink. Here is my takeaway to these various details
1. Change of Test captaincy :- I am a big fan of MS Dhoni and he has been one of the positives for Indian cricket in past few years (till World Cup). However he is bereft of fresh ideas at this moment because he is knackered and saturated after captaining and keeping Indian team in all formats for past 5+ years. He might not want to run away from captaincy but Indian team needs fresh agility and enthusiasm and that can only come after changing the captain. The obvious question is who next? I would say Virat should take over. He loves responsibility and has captained junior Indian teams in past. Some may argue that he is too young but if SA can make Smith captain after 11 Tests then why not Virat provided we agree he is leadership material.
2. Move SRT away from no. 4 :- While I am not one of critics who wants SRT to retire I do want him to relieve no. 4 spot. A no. 4 batsman controls the batting of team just like center midfield in football and is a rudder who will guide the batting through multiple sessions in order to achieve respectable batting scorecard consistently. Virat with Test captaincy on his shoulders should move to no. 4
3. Fast Bowling selection :- The dropping of Zak from Indian team is spot on as he clearly does not look the bowler of old and seems to have lost the motivation since winning World Cup. However it does make me wonder why Ishant is being persisted with? He has hardly played any cricket in past few months and selection criteria to Indian team must ensure that you prove yourself in domestic cricket specially when you were in abysmal form before injury. Dinda should have debuted at his home ground given his domestic form was very good and he was full of confidence. Yadav is definitely a positive if he remains fit but we should also look at likes of Pankaj Singh and few from Punjab Ranji team besides Awana to establish much bigger core group. Bhuwnesh Kumar is another one who should get the nod. He has been very consistent for past three years in Ranji and is a very handy batsman just like Pathan.
4. Openers :- Viru and GG have done great service for us in the past and this opening pair was one of main reason why we succeeded to no. 1 in Test rankings few years back. At this point though we need to start looking beyond them. I must say GG has been lucky with his selection in 4th Test given how selfishly he played in Mumbai 2nd inns and then his 2 runouts in Kolkatta were one of major reasons for India's loss. On top of that he doesnt have single 100+ score in last 3 years. Clearly the likes of Mukund, Dhawan and Vijay should be given more chances to establish themselves.
5. Spinners :- Chawla's selection is astonishing to say the least and only plausible reason I can think of is that he is quicker through the air. I know spin cupboards are bare but that still does not justify Chawla's selection since his bowling form has been abysmal this season. We should pick bowlers on their form and not ordinary bowlers to fill up slots. Ashwin has had poor series and he needs to learn from it. However if his hype before series was wrong then him being dropped after one poor series is even worse. He is still establishing himself in Test cricket and deserves a place till end of Oz series.
6. No. 6 spot :- There are three batsmen who deserve a shot at this namely Rahane, Tiwary and Rohit Sharma. The likes of Jadeja, Raina and Yuvi are not worth pursuing and I am surprised we havent learnt our lessons from past 2+ years. I believe lot of this is MS Dhoni's preference and hence change of captaincy might move us away from this strategy. Rahane is a no.3 bat in Ranji but he is perceived to be gritty, determined cricketer with an excellent Ranji record and he should be making his debut in Nagpur ahead of Jadeja. I have no doubt that Rahane can be successful at no. 6 if he is given enough chances and can move up the order once SRT retire.
7. Slip Cordon :- As @homertweets said on twitter we have been playing musical chairs with slip cordon. Not only that the slip fielders have been wearing shin pads while standing in the slips. We need to have consistent slip cordon even if that means exposing seniors to other positions. A dropped catch is much worse then giving away few singles specially when you consider we do not create as many chances with our bowling unit.
8. Wicket-keeping :- Dhoni's keeping standards have certainly slipped in past 12 months or so. However it is more to do with captaincy occupying his mind all the time. Even after change of captaincy he should be persisted with as wicket keeper with Karthik and Saha as reserves. MSD is still best wicket keeping batsman we have had in Indian Test history and relieving him of Test captaincy will definitely help him contribute more with bat.
While some of the current turmoil was expected due to retirement of VVS and Dravid after Oz series it will be foolish to think that these changes are not needed to revamp the Indian team. The key to transition will be identifying players at key positions and then giving them enough chances to establish themselves. I do believe we have enough talent in batting reserves that we can have another fab 4 and Indian Test team can once again become a formidable force in near future.
Two successive defeats at home to England have pushed Indian cricket to edge of "fiscal" cliff like US politics at the moment. The reason why I mentioned the quote in first line was because Indian selection has been missing those details not only in this series but also in recent past. The selection changes has been mostly superficial with no attention to details of Captaincy, middle order etc and it has taken Indian cricket on the brink. Here is my takeaway to these various details
1. Change of Test captaincy :- I am a big fan of MS Dhoni and he has been one of the positives for Indian cricket in past few years (till World Cup). However he is bereft of fresh ideas at this moment because he is knackered and saturated after captaining and keeping Indian team in all formats for past 5+ years. He might not want to run away from captaincy but Indian team needs fresh agility and enthusiasm and that can only come after changing the captain. The obvious question is who next? I would say Virat should take over. He loves responsibility and has captained junior Indian teams in past. Some may argue that he is too young but if SA can make Smith captain after 11 Tests then why not Virat provided we agree he is leadership material.
2. Move SRT away from no. 4 :- While I am not one of critics who wants SRT to retire I do want him to relieve no. 4 spot. A no. 4 batsman controls the batting of team just like center midfield in football and is a rudder who will guide the batting through multiple sessions in order to achieve respectable batting scorecard consistently. Virat with Test captaincy on his shoulders should move to no. 4
3. Fast Bowling selection :- The dropping of Zak from Indian team is spot on as he clearly does not look the bowler of old and seems to have lost the motivation since winning World Cup. However it does make me wonder why Ishant is being persisted with? He has hardly played any cricket in past few months and selection criteria to Indian team must ensure that you prove yourself in domestic cricket specially when you were in abysmal form before injury. Dinda should have debuted at his home ground given his domestic form was very good and he was full of confidence. Yadav is definitely a positive if he remains fit but we should also look at likes of Pankaj Singh and few from Punjab Ranji team besides Awana to establish much bigger core group. Bhuwnesh Kumar is another one who should get the nod. He has been very consistent for past three years in Ranji and is a very handy batsman just like Pathan.
4. Openers :- Viru and GG have done great service for us in the past and this opening pair was one of main reason why we succeeded to no. 1 in Test rankings few years back. At this point though we need to start looking beyond them. I must say GG has been lucky with his selection in 4th Test given how selfishly he played in Mumbai 2nd inns and then his 2 runouts in Kolkatta were one of major reasons for India's loss. On top of that he doesnt have single 100+ score in last 3 years. Clearly the likes of Mukund, Dhawan and Vijay should be given more chances to establish themselves.
5. Spinners :- Chawla's selection is astonishing to say the least and only plausible reason I can think of is that he is quicker through the air. I know spin cupboards are bare but that still does not justify Chawla's selection since his bowling form has been abysmal this season. We should pick bowlers on their form and not ordinary bowlers to fill up slots. Ashwin has had poor series and he needs to learn from it. However if his hype before series was wrong then him being dropped after one poor series is even worse. He is still establishing himself in Test cricket and deserves a place till end of Oz series.
6. No. 6 spot :- There are three batsmen who deserve a shot at this namely Rahane, Tiwary and Rohit Sharma. The likes of Jadeja, Raina and Yuvi are not worth pursuing and I am surprised we havent learnt our lessons from past 2+ years. I believe lot of this is MS Dhoni's preference and hence change of captaincy might move us away from this strategy. Rahane is a no.3 bat in Ranji but he is perceived to be gritty, determined cricketer with an excellent Ranji record and he should be making his debut in Nagpur ahead of Jadeja. I have no doubt that Rahane can be successful at no. 6 if he is given enough chances and can move up the order once SRT retire.
7. Slip Cordon :- As @homertweets said on twitter we have been playing musical chairs with slip cordon. Not only that the slip fielders have been wearing shin pads while standing in the slips. We need to have consistent slip cordon even if that means exposing seniors to other positions. A dropped catch is much worse then giving away few singles specially when you consider we do not create as many chances with our bowling unit.
8. Wicket-keeping :- Dhoni's keeping standards have certainly slipped in past 12 months or so. However it is more to do with captaincy occupying his mind all the time. Even after change of captaincy he should be persisted with as wicket keeper with Karthik and Saha as reserves. MSD is still best wicket keeping batsman we have had in Indian Test history and relieving him of Test captaincy will definitely help him contribute more with bat.
While some of the current turmoil was expected due to retirement of VVS and Dravid after Oz series it will be foolish to think that these changes are not needed to revamp the Indian team. The key to transition will be identifying players at key positions and then giving them enough chances to establish themselves. I do believe we have enough talent in batting reserves that we can have another fab 4 and Indian Test team can once again become a formidable force in near future.
