By YAJURVINDRA SINGH
The competition brewing between cricket players for a place in the Indian Test side is very good for Indian cricket. However, the key to success is to groom young talent and make them quickly and forcefully effective, especially with the World Test Championship final looming on the horizon next year.
Young, daring cricketers are emerging from all corners of India, each one confident and skilled enough to make their mark. One may seem to see harmony amongst them when they are on the field representing India; however, there is definitely no love lost when so many of them are vying for the only 11 spots to fill.
In boxing terms, a street fighter is one who has not honed his skills through systematic training but on the notorious streets. The Indian cricket stars of the recent past and the ones emerging have tales of rising to the top from unchartered places as well. These are the cricketers who from street fighters have become “Prize fighters” those who seem to revel when reaching their goal.
Jaspreet Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Hardik Pandya, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, and even the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni are a few examples. They all have one strong trait: they can swim and survive any turbulence.
The present Indian cricket seems to breed so many of them, and selecting an Indian side in any of the formats has become a very taxing task for the selectors.
The historical problem that Indian cricket has faced over all these years has been the failure to make a forceful decision on the selection of players for the national side. The safe and secure option has normally been chosen. This has been done to ensure that the decision is secure against possible brickbats or criticism. The present selectors need to break this syndrome.
Cricket in India has become a profession, and to make it to playing internationally for the country requires a lot of sweat, hard work, and a singular focus on achieving one’s goal.
After going through the hard yards and having done well, players are perplexed as to why young, talented Indian cricketers should be benched once senior players return. The 3 Indian debutants who came through with flying colours against England in the last Test series are most likely to be benched against Bangladesh.
The trio of Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel will make way for K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. One can understand the inclusion of Jadeja as an extra spinner in Indian conditions; however, for the young brood to be replaced by their more established colleagues is not fair. A prime example of this was Karun Nair, who was dropped in the next match after scoring a triple hundred, a rare feat in Test cricket. Cricket, like most things in life, is played as much mentally as it is on the field. It needs a positive flow of confidence to consistently do well, and if that thread is broken, weaving it back can become difficult. Unfortunately, Karun Nair could not do so and failed to live up to his earlier success upon his return.
Both K.L. Rahul and Rishabh Pant have done great service and played magnificent cricket in the past. However, a series against Bangladesh is an ideal platform to nurse the next in line, especially players who have shown to be ready to play amongst the big boys.
This takes one back to the making of Mumbai players. They were and are renowned for having a “Khadoos” attitude, as one popularly called it. Although, in normal terms, it means grumpy and unfriendly, the Mumbai players see it as a sole focus of never giving up, never giving an inch, or losing heart.
That is precisely why Mumbai and Bombay had such a distinguished list of Indian Test batters earlier. Presently, Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, and Sarfaraz Khan, the newest addition, have kept the baton going.
The Mumbai attitude has also gradually filtered into players from other parts of India. One can see the focus and the determination in the eyes of an Indian player making one’s debut, and Test cricket is the only true platform where this becomes most relevant. In the limited overs, due to the overs restriction, one can be forgiven for playing a false shot, whereas, in Test cricket, it is not so.
The performance in domestic cricket is always talked about as being the stepping stone to the next level of playing for the country. Sarfaraz, Padikkal and Jurel have done so and have also performed well for India. One can understand their disappointment on being side-stepped, especially to play against Bangladesh, a side against whom they may have been able to seal their place in the Indian side for good.
Sarfaraz, one knows, has the khadoos attitude and his brother Musheer Khan looks to be just a step behind.
Indian cricket needs to keep bringing in these youngsters to flourish in the future, or else we may have a cupboard full of talent all gone to waste.
(Yajurvindra Singh is a former India cricketer. The views expressed are personal).
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–IANS Column
