MSK Prasad, the chief selector of the BCCI has a task on his hand. MSK and his team totally blew a golden opportunity when they picked the Indian team for the 2019 World Cup giving skipper Virat Kohli little or nothing with a weak middle-order. Whether Kohli had asked for it, or not, one will never know thanks to the lack of transparency that continues to plague the BCCI’s activities.
Coming back, MSK & Co. now have the chance of retribution as far as building the team going forward is concerned. The victory against the West Indies, in all formats, was commendable but cannot be considered a benchmark as the Windies are struggling to find their feet in Test cricket. One had thought that Jason Holder had turned the tables with a superb series win against England but that proved next to nothing as the Windies capitulated against the Indian pacers.
Theirs was a classic case of taking two steps forward and one big step back. The opportunity that the Indian selectors now face is to groom the players of the future. India will be playing the second series of the World Test Championship against South Africa soon. The Proteas are in the stage of rebuilding their team after the exit of notables like Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and AB de Villiers. The chance for India to try out fresh talent, in a series where the challenges are not as severe, and will probably augur well for the future.
A statement, recently made by a senior first-class cricketer, was a bit disturbing. Sheldon Jackson, an all-rounder of repute who plays for Saurashtra questioned the decisions of the Indian selectors saying his team played the Ranji Trophy final this year and showed surprise that not a single team member was picked for the India ‘A’ series against South Africa ‘A’. His tweet also mentioned that the importance of playing the Ranji trophy finals was “zero”.
Over the last few series that India has played, it does come across that the selectors and team management give long rope to one while offering a tiny strip to another player. One states this after observing the way Karnataka batsman Karun Nair, the second Indian to score a triple hundred and Ajinkya Rahane (in the shorter format of the game) have always got the short end of the stick.
Compare that with the leeway consistently given to KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan and one gets to see why Jackson is frustrated. While India are emulating the Australian way of aggression (a bit bawdy and unnecessary at times) on the field, they could well follow the Aussie way of caring two hoots for reputation and picking only those in form. Whatever the reason, it was sad to see Rohit Sharma and R. Ashwin sit out of the two Test matches in the Caribbean. Rahul’s failure with the bat could have prompted the team management to try out Rohit in the opening slot at Sabina Park, considering Hanuma Vihari had grabbled his middle order slot. There have been comments by many senior cricketers that Rahul has the potential and should be given more opportunities which is fair enough. The same theory can be applied to Rohit who too is sublime to watch and more importantly was in tremendous form.
The selectors now have two big series that have concluded recently — the India ‘A’ versus South Africa ‘A’ and the Duleep Trophy. There have been stellar performances by the young lot in both these tournaments with Sanju Samson and Abhimanyu Easwaran standing tall.
One wonders if these performers will get a look in when the selectors sit to pick the teams for the impending series against the Proteas. The Duleep Trophy, sadly named after colours these days, has historically been an important feeder of talent in Indian cricket. The advent of shorter, entertaining formats like Twenty20 have taken the sheen of this glorious tournament which gave fans many memories from its inception in the early 60s. What used to be a tournament played by five zones, it is now a three-team contest that features the best available talent but has no fan loyalty and following.
The ideal expectation of a cricket romantic fan would be for the trophy to be played in its original format. Loyal fan following will give a fillip to the tournament which can only happen if fans ‘connect’ with teams. Otherwise it’s yet another trail game. If BCCI sadly want to continue the current setup, the least they could do is to name teams after former India greats, as suggested by a few former players, to give it a modicum of respect.
