The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : India cannot afford another poor start

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 12, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

India cannot afford another poor start

By Sanjay Rajan

SURVEYING THE BATTLEGROUND: The Indian captain Sourav Ganguly having a look at the Chepauk ground in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI, OCT. 11. A pensive Sourav Ganguly inspected the Chidambaram Stadium wicket on Monday. The Indian cricket captain arrived in the city in the morning, while his team members and the Australian side flew in from Bangalore in the evening.

The second Test, beginning here on October 14 is crucial. And Ganguly knows, more than most, that if India has to come back, it has to be now. The host's batting line-up does not look complete without Sachin Tendulkar at No. 4. It is not clear if the Mumbai maestro will play in the second Test. Asked about his condition, Tendulkar only said, "it's still too early to say anything."

The National selection committee had tied its own hands by announcing a squad for the first two Tests. For, the Committee is not in a position to exercise any option, if there is one that is. Kiran More & Co. obviously did not expect India to lose the opening Test.

Ganguly and his boys were expected to hold their own, especially after the side's fine performances in Australia and Pakistan last season.

Whether or not it crossed Ganguly's mind that to save a Test one has to think of winning it, is a matter of debate.

And while Ganguly was brave enough to walk in at the position normally held by Tendulkar, he would have to probably think in terms of strategically rearranging the batting order. Somebody young and ambitious like Yuvraj Singh probably needs to be given more responsibility and it might have helped his confidence as well as his cause if he had been promoted to No. 3 in the second innings.

There are some cricketers who need a challenge and not just to function in a supporting role. Yuvraj might be one of these. Even though the captain has hinted that he is in favour of continuing with Aakash Chopra, the batsman's limitations as a stroke-maker as well as his reluctance to get fully forward leave him extremely vulnerable.

The point is, India cannot afford a poor start and it is towards this end that the team management must find a combination that would blunt the initial Australian onslaught. The Australian attack, now aging and without Brett Lee in the scheme of things, has been extremely professional by putting the ball in the right places and resorting to clever change of pace. But for such a vaunted Indian batting-order to succumb to this sort of strategy cannot be easily justified.

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