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India must apply the lessons learnt

The truest test of a contemporary cricketer is a tour of Australia, writes Peter Roebuck

— Photo: V. Ganesan

LONG WAY TO GO: Wasim Jaffer’s game lacked substance in Australia and he must thank his stars for getting a chance to regain form on the placid Chennai wicket.

Wasim Jaffer and Sourav Ganguly are lucky to be playing in Chennai. Part of the problem with playing home matches on docile pitches is that everyone scores runs thereby making their positions almost impregnable.

Accordingly the hands of the selectors are tied and the team stays the same and established players grow old together. In the long run it is not healthy. Mind you, as the sage economist John Maynard Keynes once pointed out “in the long run we ar e all dead.”

Far and away the truest test of a contemporary cricketer is a tour of Australia. Ricky Ponting and company may not play the most likeable brand of cricket but their aggression is unrelenting and their intent is unwavering.

Visiting players are examined like a corpse upon a slab. Weaknesses are exposed and exploited and before long frail players feel inadequate. It is all a far cry from the dozing pitches and lacklustre bowling experienced elsewhere, even these days in Pakistan.

Big mistake

It is exactly the sort of scrutiny selectors need in order to sort the sheep from the goats. Anyone able to look the Australians in the eye deserves his place. The Australians were amazed that Virender Sehwag was ignored and places given to more fragile cricketers.

Had not the rumbustious opener dominated them on previous tours? The hosts could not understand the notice taken of series against lesser sides.

Figures cannot any longer be relied upon to tell the full story. Interpretation is required.

Jaffer and Ganguly failed the antipodean test and should have paid the penalty. Jaffer’s game lacked substance. Repeatedly he played airy shots outside off-stump and edged to the cordon. Even his fielding lacked commitment.

As far as the Australians were concerned he was a lightweight. Admittedly he has previously scored runs overseas but his failures down under condemned him.

Opportunities ought to be given to the ODI batsmen who stared down their hosts.

Ganguly is another case. Beyond argument he is a courageous batsman of superb and silken skills. All the same he did not score enough runs in the antipodes to protect his place in the side. To the contrary he started well but rapidly faded.

Plainly the faster bowlers troubled him. Although lost in all the rancour, his contentious dismissal at the SCG told the tale. Pushed back by Brett Lee’s pace, Ganguly was caught out of position and edged towards slip.

Ganguly also languished in Perth. He is too weighty a competitor to blame bad health for this lapse. Certainly he bowled handily but his fielding faded as the series went along.

Of course the southpaw has long toyed with his fates and remains capable of plucking from thin air sublime innings. Obviously he also has considerable backing. But there is no room for romance of politicking at the selection table. As the Australian series reached its climax it was hard to avoid regarding him as a man of the past.

Ishant, Pathan missed

Not that these players were entirely to blame for the team’s lamentable fielding and lacklustre pace bowling in Chennai. But the team looked lopsided with only four frontline bowlers and a slow-footed bunch of fieldsmen. The sooner Ishant Sharma returns to lead the attack the better. Australia tests bowlers as well as batsman. Irfan Pathan was also missed because be brings balance to the side.

India must apply the lessons learnt down under. Otherwise the team will fall short of its highest aspirations. The world is not to be conquered by sentiment.

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