Indian cricket - some bold decisions need to be made
This blog is about Indian cricket, what can be done better in the current tour of Australia, team combinations,what went wrong, Virat Kohli as captain and what India should do to win more overseas.
First things first, we really got the team combination wrong in the second test at Perth. Traditionally, the conditions at Perth support fast bowling as the pitch supports good aggressive bowling where the ball reaches the keeper almost at shoulder height and the ball skids quickly off the pitch. Pace and bounce was never our forte until now where suddenly out of the blue we have been able to extract great bowlers from the likes of the Bumrahs, Shamis, Ishants, Bhuvis and even Umesh Yadav. Granted that IPL has certainly helped when it comes to unearthing these great talents but what’s surprising to see is we never had great fast bowlers to look up to.
Kapil Dev was a fast bowling all-rounder and Srinath was never the king-pin but a very decent, ‘I’ll give my 100%” bowler. Therefore, I use the term suddenness than thoughtful, strategic and natural production. Hurrah to the rise of fast bowlers though. Did we need them bad or what?
Virat Kohli totally got the team combination wrong in the second test, playing four fast bowlers on any pitch is not a good option. There needs to some variety, regardless of the conditions with very few exceptions being rank turners which one usually gets in the Asian subcontinent. I don’t want this to make a regular “Jadeja should have played instead of Umesh” argument, want this to be a little more concise and detailed. Let’s dive into it a little deeper with what the team combination should have been, not just for the last test match (which we lost badly) but the overall series.
Rohit Sharma should have been our opener for this series. Him and Prithvi Shaw, in my opinion, would almost have been perfect. It is well-known that Rohit has failed miserably in the longer format of the game but he should be playing where he’s had the most success in all forms of the game - At the top of the order - As an Opener
I also understand that test cricket is a different ballgame compared to the ODIs and T20 but you need intent and sustenance at the top. Sharma may not be the best technically but when you have the best opener in the world, why not try him at the top in the Test format too? Who thought that Sehwag would become a great opener? Didn’t he literally throw the rule book out first thing in the morning, all mornings of his entire career?
Rohit is a better batsman than Sehwag if you go purely by numbers. Another reason why Rohit should open is because we are playing in Aus where the balls comes onto the bat nicely and who better than the “Hitman” to get some runs on the board at the top?
It’s unfortunate that Shaw got injured and we’re hearing that he’ll be out of the whole series. Murali Vijay (and not KL Rahul) woud be a good fit to replace him at the top. Granted that he has miserably failed at the top of the order but the inconsistency of Rahul is getting very annoying. One can argue that Vijay is past his prime and most likely would get dropped from the next match, but I feel that he’d be a good fit with Sharma playing his natural game
If not Murali Vijay, I would absolutely play Hanuma Vihari at the top with Rohit Sharma. He’s solid in defense and can take a beating with the new ball as well, comes across as a gritty and temperamental cricketer. So making a choice, I would go with Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari as my openers (if not Murali Vijay)
The openers should be followed by Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Pant, Pandya. Pant has a lot to learn when it comes to playing with the tail, doesn’t shield them as he should. Pandya is not an expert either but he has certainly more experience than Pant and adds that ever-needed balance to the side.
That’s my Top Seven i.e. 5 specialist batsman, wicket-keeper batsman and batting all rounder (or bowling all rounder, depends on which side of the bed Pandya’s gotten up from)
Choosing the faster bowlers is relatively simple with Ishant, Bumrah and Shami doing well. The lone spinner selection is dicey. I know that Ashwin did well in the first innings of the first test but he’s not consistent enough, almost doesn’t have it in him to get the tail out. He bowled about 50 overs in the last test for god-knows-what-reason and got injured. He’s a good first innings bowler but lacks the fitness and experiments too much when he doesn’t get wickets.
Jadeja is better fit. In my opinion, he is our best spin-bowler, not Ashwin! Don’t know if its age or too much variety but what you really need at this time is consistency and high levels of fitness, being a left arm bowler doesn’t hurt. And besides, having a Vihari in the side gives another option of an off-spinner anyway.
Therefore, my playing XI would be in the below order:
Rohit Sharma
Hanuma Vihari
Cheteshwar Pujara
Virat Kohli
Ajinkya Rahane
Rishabh Pant
Hardik Pandya
Ravindra Jadeja
Ishant Sharma
Mohammed Shami
Jasprit Bumrah
Below is what I think likely is going to happen because of the un-experimental nature of the think-tank these days. I’m sure they haven’t even considered having Rohit open and forget about trying Jadeja instead of Ashwin!
KL Rahul / Parthiv Patel
Hanuma Vihari
Cheteshwar Pujara
Virat Kohli
Ajinkya Rahane
Rishabh Pant
Hardik Pandya
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ishant Sharma
Mohammed Shami
Jasprit Bumrah
The last piece I want to state is the importance or lack thereof of this series. My prediction is we are going to win this series 2-1 so statistically this would be of great importance as India has never won a test series in Australia and therefore, this would come across the biggest series win in the last 11 years (Since Dravid’s India defeated in England in 2007).
Statistically, there’s a lot on the line but I wouldn’t really rank this as the turning point it would most-likely be painted as. There’s no Smith, there’s no Warner in the XI and I know this is beyond India’s control but the win would have mattered a whole lot more if they were around. What if Australia won a series in India minus the services of Kohli (Captain) and Rahane (Vice-captain), would you have rated it eqaully vs when Kohli and Rahane were playing? Nope.
Surely our media would go crazy but no one would give Aus all the credit in the world.
Not sure if this series victory would really be the turn around that Indian cricket needs, that we so desperately hoped for against South Africa last year (2-1) and probably came closer against England (even though the scoreline of 4-1 doesn’t reflect that) . I haven’t even thought about us losing this series, that would be a huge-letdown and may even call for Virat’s head as captain of the team and Shastri’s as coach.
Virat Kohli is known for being bold, abrasive and won’t-listen-to-anybody avatar. Surely, he is the undisputed leader of India not just on the cricketing field but in all cricketing matters in the country (don’t forget the RCB) but he needs to work on his over-the-top antics and be more calm,composed and mature.
Dhoni is Dhoni and Kohli surely is Kohli, but there are things we must learn from our seniors for only a calm mind and cool head makes good decisions.
But the question right now is, is he ready to drop Ashwin as the lead spinner, try Rohit Sharma at the top ?
If these changes are not made, in my opinion, we would go back to the sometimes hot and sometimes cold team India that we are so accustomed to seeing outside home (in the SENA countries i.e. South Africa, England, New Zealand and above all Australia)
A captain is only as good as his team but the right team needs to be picked for the captain and the team to look good.