The Indian Test Team in the coming year……

Today is the 6th of May and India have to complete the Bangladesh tour before they embark on an England tour. India play 7 Test Matches between July and February as of now – at Lord’s, Trent Bridge, Oval, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. These seven Tests present a severe Test. England have a formidable record in England recently. Indeed their efforts against each of the other Test playing nations in their latest series in England is:

2 -1 v Australia in 2005
2 -2 v South Africa in 2003
3-0 v New Zealand in 2004
4 -0 v West Indies in 2004
3 -0 v Pakistan in 2006
1 – 1 v Sri Lanka in 2006
2 – 0 v Bangladesh in 2005
1 – 1 v India in 2002

They are at this point in time unbeaten at home. They also possess a formidable bowling attack which seems to find a new gear in home conditions – Harmison, Flintoff, Jones (who is well on the way to recovery) and Hoggard supported by Monty Panesar (not India’s favorite style of slow bowler) would Test any line up in the world – indeed they bested the Australian batting in 2005 without Panesar.

Against Australia, the challenge is equally formidable. Even though McGrath may be gone, Shaun Tait and Brett Lee are potentially the quickest new ball pair in World Cricket since Lillee and Thommo in 1974-75. Holding and Marshall might have matched them for pace occasionally, and you could argue that Shoaib and Sami were capable of the same sustained pace – but Sami never distinguished himself as a Test bowler (neither has Tait – but if his World Cup is anything to go by, he is potentially capable of as much damage as Shoaib in Test cricket). With Stuart Clark supporting these two bowlers, Australia possess a bowling attack with depth and genuine pace. Contrary to popular belief however, i feel that India’s greatest challenge in Australia will be at Melbourne – indeed if they can hold the Australians at Melbourne, they have a great chance of competing at Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. Perth has slowed down over the past few seasons and Sydney and Adelaide have been happy hunting grounds for India.

How should India respond to this opportunity? Much is being made as to whether Sehwag will be in form or whether Tendulkar, Laxman and co will be up to the task. The fact of the matter is, that there will be very little (in fact no opportunity) for the selectors to gauge these players form. Efforts in Bangladesh have zero bearing on selection to England and Australia. There is no first class cricket available between the Bangladesh and Australia tours. The months between England and Australia are packed with One Day cricket. Further, domestic cricket is as valuable as the Bangladesh tour for determining suitability for an English or Australian tour.

Ravi Shastri’s first rule – which seems to have become his stock response to questions – that he will try and get India to start enjoying Cricket again seems to be a good beginning. The Indian fast attack is shaping up well – with Munaf Patel being in my view the finest Indian fast bowler since Kapil Dev, Sreesanth shaping up to be a terrific competitor and Zaheer Khan recovering his best form. Kumble remains a formidable force. The impressive Ranadeb Bose is pushing for a slot, as are the usual suspects – RP, VRV, Ajit and Ashish. Batting is another story all together. What is Sehwag’s role going to be? Will he be upto fullfilling that role? There will be very little opportunity to determine the answers to this question and many others. All things considered, India’s fortunes in England and Australia will rest on 3 players – VVS Laxman, Virendra Sehwag and Mahendra Dhoni. All three are world class match winners on their day. All three have unique problems at the moment.

VVS Laxman is perpetually on trial, and whatever feeble competition there is from the domestic talent pool will knock him off his perch before it does anybody else. He is also unsure of his role in the side, and is singularly unsuited to the number 6 role, even though he does quite well there – he can’t run too well between wickets, he can’t slog. He is not being used very efficiently there.

Sehwag is similarly safe from competition from the domestic pool, because he has been an extraordinary Test batsman in the last 3-4 years – unique amongst the world’s opening batsmen. But he is unsure of his role and in the light of the revelations vis a vis Chappell, one has to wonder how much the Chappell era affected Sehwag. The captain has backed him and backed him to the hilt.

Mahendra Dhoni – a flamboyant Test Match altering player at his best, faces the same problems which his predecessor faced – his position in the side is subject to other factors as much as it is to his form. Dinesh Karthik being selected as specialist opener suggests that he may be groomed to be Sehwag or Jaffer’s opening partner, thus enabling India to play a specialist batsmen at 6, and another specialist batsman or Irfan at 7. When Dhoni arrived, Karthik was doing well – especially in Tests, but Dhoni’s tremendous run making ability blew Karthik from the team sheet. That whirlwind century in dire circumstances at Faisalabad against Shoaib at his fiercest confirmed the management’s opinion. Karthik has emerged by sheet dint of hard work. Dhoni must deliver substantially to ensure that Karthik if selected does not tempt the selectors to leave him out.

How should India make best use of these three gifted cricketers? With Dhoni and Sehwag, it is really upto them and upto their handlers to ensure that they be given the best opportunities to flower. Subject to reasonable efforts in Bangladesh, it would make sense to retain Sehwag as opener in England. Now, the English bowlers were the first to exploit Sehwag’s weakness against the short ball in India in 2006, and Sehwag succeeding there is a long shot – but its still worth the gamble in my view. For, if India are to compete in England and Australia, they must have the option of attacking up front with bat and ball. The role of Akash Chopra in 2003-04 in Australia and Pakistan is often referred to – but what is inevitably missed is that Chopra was a foil to Sehwag. The success was Sehwag’s – because the runs came from his blade.

One would apply the same thinking to Laxman – he ought to bat at number 3 for India – and with his record and given what is apparent about his position in Indian cricket today, it would be a good idea to gaurantee him the number 3 slot for the full England tour and if he does well, for the full Australian tour – to make him the vanguard of the batting assault. Laxman is upset at being ignored for the World Cup, and would respond well to the added responsibility. That he is being offered the position currently held by his captain – the great Rahul Dravid will not be lost on him. It is worth the gamble.

You might think that this talk is all very well, and that performance in the field always trumps most strategies – but there has to be plan, and all evidence points to the fact that attacking batting is the way to go in England and Australia – not reckless devil-may-care shot-a-minute cameos, but assertive, aggressive batting that can come only from the ability to hit good balls for runs. Tendulkar at his best could execute this type of batting.

The other three slots in the batting order – 4, 5 and 6 will have Rahul Dravid and two out of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Yuvraj. This is a ticklish problem. My own preference would be Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj in that batting order, but Ganguly’s runs in South African can’t be ignored.

The other joker in the Indian pack is Irfan Pathan. He needs to perform a specific role in Test cricket – 5th bowler, number 7 batsman. He must have the ability to bowl long extremely accurate spells with the wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps – kill the runs and help the captain control the game in the field. That will allow Kumble to attack more. But Pathan faces the same problems that the others do – poor form, no opportunities to prove himself. That he is out of the ordinary is however beyond doubt.

My preferred line up in England (and if all goes well, in Australia as well) would be

Jaffer/Karthik
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Dravid
Yuvraj
Dhoni/Irfan
Kumble
Zaheer
Sreesanth
Munaf

with Tiwary, Bose, Ganguly and VRV in the reserves.

The batting order is important – in my view Yuvraj Singh is best equipped to bat with the tail, he has the best shot making ability and his experience late in ODI games and run chases should serve him well here. He also runs well between wickets. Dravid would be the fulcrum of the batting at number 5. It will give him breathing space when things are going well, and equip him well as captain to take charge in the event of a collapse.

If Tendulkar produces the runs i think he has been threatening to (looking at him batting in South Africa), then it will be hard to control this line up. In the final analysis, it all boils down to runs on the score board. But it is the batting order on the team sheet and the mood in the dressing room which define the mindset with which run scoring is approached.