Indian Fans in FRUSTRATION

 

Ashwin and B Kumar selection Mystery

Extremely disappointing limited overs series defeat in the hands of SA. It is easier to think we missed the services of Jadeja and Pandya and their shoes were too big to fill for a debutant such as V Iyer. That said, India still did not use the series to full advantage in terms of exploring talents. Rather used it to eliminate B Kumar and Ashwin. Don’t see the duo featuring in limited overs going forward (which we already know that they would be found wanting). Chahar has developed into a nice swing bowler in the last few seasons and his performance against SL with bat recently was magical. His selection should have been straightforward in place of B Kumar from first ODI. Similarly, Ashwin was found wanting in the TEST series. Why play a jaded Ashwin rather a pair of fresh legs like Jayant Yadav or Prasid Krishna from the first ODI?

Dhawan “the Big Elephant”

Only few months ago the selectors showed inclination of moving away from Dhawan. The choices indicated Rohit and Rahul are the prime openers and Ishan Kishan is back up. As Rohit was out due to injury, should it not be logical to give Ishan Kishan a fair run after the long wait? How/Why should selectors bring back Dhawan and send Ishan again to waiting room? This is inconsistency from selectors part and it has nothing to do with Dhawan. Dhawan did his job well for the role of opener in the absence of Rohit. Again, Dhawan age could play a part, if selectors are looking at him as option for 2023 WC. He is 36 now. Should be 38+ then. Any poor form during the mega event, like it or not, it will be attributed to age. Suddenly the next guy won’t be ready as he won’t have the necessary experience needed. We witnessed ageing Dhoni in 2019WC and inexperienced showing of Vijay Shankar. Now with this performance, not sure if Dhawan is back in the mix for WT20 2022 edition. Dhawan did well in this series and he is a big elephant in the room to ignore.

Captain Rahul

As much Rahul was a stand in skipper for Rohit (probably the guy next in line too) appears to be holding the weight of the world on his shoulder when leading the side. His batting lacked the usual dynamism at the top of the order. Who else you need other than Kohli to anchor the ship when chips go wrong. If required, players like Pant, S Iyer, Takur all have caliber to come good. It’s about having trust on your resources to come shining when needed and playing your natural game. A Captains quintessential trait should be trusting his comrades. Rahul didn’t exhibit this character in this series.  

 

What we derived from SA Tour?

Pujara and Rahane should see the end of their road very soon (if not already). Ashwin and B Kumar come backs are short lived. Dhawan is too big an elephant to ignore. The selections in both tests and limited overs were largely driven by seniority rather on merit of form.

 

Way Forward

Pant is wasted in the middle order. Its high time somebody see his potential and make him the opener where he can be expressive. The field restrictions in the first power play will allow his style of batting to pay rich dividends. In Tests, there are no field restrictions and we see different version of Pant. Its time to extract that Test version of Pant in limited overs too.

There is no point in sitting out talents like Gaikwad (5 centuries in Vijay Hazary Trophy). The team management should be flexible in their thought process and open up vacancies for special talents.

Beyond Rohit Sharma the next in line for leadership is an open race. Rahul, Pant, S Iyer, Bumrah, Samson, Pandya (now included) a lot of these names are thrown up in the mix. Should go to any of them if only they exhibit leadership qualities. Won’t be a bad idea to interview them for the role to get their line of thinking, their blue print for India etc. to understand them better before the job is handed in the future.

Hopefully in the IPL seasons ahead we would like to see one of the future captaincy prospects winning other than the usual suspects to throw some light as who that next torch bearer is.

 

Bottomline

Dravid surely started on the backfoot. Hopefully he used the series as first hour of batting to get a good measure of conditions. Looking forward to seeing the WALL standing TALL. 

Dinesh

Crazy Cricket Lover