the new stars in the Horizon!!!

So much happened in the last week, there is an aura of joy surrounding Indian Cricket.

The Indian Under -19 World Cup winning team are the new stars in the horizon. On the fast and bouncy surfaces of Australia, especially after the poor start against West Indies U-19, nobody would have backed these kids to go all the way. They surprised and they made us look back. Already Unmukt Chand is touted as the next Kohli and Harmeet Singh is hailed as the next Bedi in making. The Australian great Ian Chappell in his words of praise already mentioned that both these players are ready for International cricket. There were showers of eulogize from Akram too.

All Unmukt Chand, Baba Aparajith, Vijay Zol, Smit Patel, Harmeet Singh, Sandeep Sharma are wonderful talents to watch out for. Outside Unmukt and Harmeet, it is Baba Aparjith and Sandeep Sharma who impressed me personally. Baba’s bowling reminded Ashwin, while Sandeep Sharma’s accuracy in terms of line and length and ability to provide break thru as the situation demands are the biggest trait for making into higher grade cricket. By any means, one or two players from this team are more likely to break into the Indian side in any of the format in less than a year from now.

BCCI has already awarded 20 Lakh Rupees for each of the World Cup winning player. Some like Bedi has criticized the board for handing out huge sum to these kids at an early age. My friend Balaji who has similar opinion as Bedi, suggested for a scholarship program that should sponsor these kids to pursue the career of their choice in the future. I liked the idea. In any case, not all of them are going to have cricket as their profession. Because they were a part of World Cup winning side, every one of them is sure to try their hands on cricket in the immediate future. And this is also the most appropriate thing to do. With the system in place to fast track youngsters, some of them are likely to find a space in first class cricket of their respective region or fetch a contract in IPL team to say the least. But few years from now, we know exactly what happened to every one of them.

It annoys when people bash the young Indian cricketers. Most of their opinions are opinionated to believe the current era of youngsters don’t stand a chance compared to the greats like Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar in Test Cricket. Some even go another notch to say, when the Dravids, Tendulkars and Laxmans have so much challenge dealing alien conditions, the youngsters will be a pity site. Some think the youngsters lack the work ethic and are largely spoiled by money and T20 cricket influence. To name few examples, a youngster like Rohit Sharma came to limelight in 2007 and unable to establish a spot in the side till date. A talent like Suresh Raina appears a joker in Test Cricket. There are always going to be these one off cricketers who are going to disappoint us. If you look at the other side, even the trio of Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar whose mainstream is about playing Test Cricket were found wanting in England and Australia despite all those tons of experience. A youngster like Virat Kohli who was found wanting initially in Test Cricket did not disappoint in Australia. Pujara eased into the shoes of Dravid without a lot of fuss. These are the plus that we should see rather blowing the negatives out of proportion. If India could lose 8-0 after the famed batting line up, the youngsters cannot do any worse than that. By all means, Indian cricket is definitely in safe hands.

Coming back to Second Test commencing tomorrow, it will be a pity if Rahane/Badrinath did not replace Suresh Raina. I’m surprised as why everyone is hell bent to revive the Test career of Suresh Raina. He already has enough in his plate. He is already a game breaker for India in both T20 cricket and ODI formats and also a vital cog in the wheel of Chennai Super Kings. Is this not enough? Let us assume he breaks into the Test Arena too, and then do you really think he is a Sachin Tendulkar or Virendar Sehwag or Mahindra Singh Dhoni to pick and chose his series? Rather forcing him to become the test batsman, the choice should be left to the individual. The day Suresh Raina chose to skip an IPL season and prefers county cricket in England, it means he has made up his decision to become a Test Cricketer. At that point, nothing should prevent Raina from breaking into the Test Line Up. Until then feed the spot to the cricketer who has nothing in his plate.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover