Two many wicketkeepers…..

Wicketkeeper batsmen have had a long chequered history in India. From Navle in the inaugural Test, to Karthik in the upcoming Lord’s Test, they have frequently faced the new ball. Apart from Sunil Gavaskar’s era when wicketkeepers did not open the batting for India (the only wicketkeeper who Gavaskar partnered was Farokh Engineer very early in his career), they have often been asked to do the job. There is another facet to this story. For most of Sunil Gavaskar’s career, India have also had all-rounders in their side. Be it Eknath Solkar and Rusi Surti in the early 1970’s, or Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri since the late 70’s, there has never been a shortage of the all round cricketer who can contribute with both bat and ball. Since Gavaskar’s retirement in 1987, India have not found a single all-rounder of note. Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev were around till 1996 and 1994 respectively, but since then the cupboard has been bare.

By asking wicketkeepers to open, India have in effect tried to create an all-rounder. All-rounders provide crucial balance to a side and successful sides have always had all rounders – players who can perform 2 specialist tasks with sufficient competence. Even the great Australian side have Adam Gilchrist, who apart from being a fine batsman is also the specialist wicketkeeper.

Dinesh Karthik is a specialist wicketkeeper with some batting talent. He has been courageous enough to take up the role of opener and so far and has done quite well in his short stint. As Rahul Dravid said of him – “He has a good basic technique and his courage cannot be faulted”. He has played as a specialist batsman, and has not been keeping wickets recently. Dhoni has been the first choice wicketkeeper. However, the question is – can India afford the luxury of playing both Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni in the eleven, especially when they have Yuvraj Singh waiting on the sidelines for a middle order slot? As i have written before, this is the crux of the selection dilemma for the Indian management during this England tour, and in the near future – as long as Dinesh Karthik opens the batting. All the options are difficult.

Given India’s depleted bowling line up (Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh), the batting has to be as strong as it can possibly be. India do not possess 5 good bowlers who can make possible up a 5 bowler line up in the current squad in England. If India play only 4 bowlers, then it is very likely that India will bat against very stiff English totals. India have to play Yuvraj at 7 to add some depth to the batting. Dinesh Karthik has to keep wickets and perform the all-rounders role. He is the only one in the current squad who can do so. MS Dhoni, while he is a tremendously powerful stroke player, is likely to find his defensive technique tested (and frequently bested), and hence, can not perform the conventional all-rounders role.

The strongest Indian line up from the current squad would in my view be as follows (in batting order):

Jaffer, Karthik, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly, Yuvraj, Kumble, Zaheer, Sreesanth, RP