Time Team India is rehauled

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When Zaheer Khan stopped dead in his follow-through and bent down to feel his right hamstring that fateful summer afternoon at Lord’s, not only Zak, but Indian cricket itself got hamstrung. The World Cup glory now a forgotten dream, the shattered remains of it is buried at Adelaide where Australia wrapped up a 4-0 whitewash on Saturday. India has now lost eight successive away Test matches, their worst performance in more than four decades. So, where do they go from here?
It wasn’t the first instance India lost in “alien” conditions. But public memory is short. As soon as the players return home and start scoring runs again, these troubles will be conveniently forgotten. Until, of course, the next away tour comes up.

Infuse new blood
This is the time to stem the rot. Consider the numbers: Virat Kohli, on his maiden Test tour to Australia, outscored those in the team who have been here at least four times, five in Sachin Tendulkar’s case. Crucially, he scored more than all Australian batsmen, except skipper Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting.
“For a player who was supposed to be the weakest link in the team, with his back-foot technique being questioned, he hasn’t done too shabbily. It shows when you have the hunger to perform and the energy to do it with, reputation and past records do not matter,” says former India captain Ajit Wadekar. “India would have been better served if they had taken fresh legs to Australia rather than those who were well past their prime.”
Kohli is the newest member of India’s top six and leads a bunch of talented youngsters, who were either warming the benches Down Under or were back home while the established superstars were being embarrassed by a fiercely-competitive Australian side.
The fact that a talent like Rohit Sharma is yet to reach the world stage in Tests is puzzling. India was touring the Caribbean last summer when Duncan Fletcher first saw Rohit. “I don’t know why you are not playing Test matches. You can make it to most Test sides in the world,” Rohit, before leaving for Australia, told this newspaper, recalling the portly Zimbabwean’s words.

Need to groom youth
With India’s next Test series — against New Zealand at home — months away, Rohit and Kohli would very likely form the core of the team in the longer version, with players like domestic cricket’s run-machine Cheteshwar Pujara, talented southpaw Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Abhinav Mukund rotating around them. But are they good enough for the long haul?
“It’s a peculiar situation,” says former India international Ajay Jadeja. “We have a bunch of greats who are ageing rapidly and there is talent to replace them, but they’ve not been groomed specifically for Test cricket. Whatever opportunities they’ve got is in ODIs and Twenty20s. “The slogs and swipes that work in IPL can’t be used in Tests, especially on alien, bowler-friendly tracks.”
Former India all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar adds, “It’s a systemic problem. There’s never been an initiation into Test cricket for youngsters in our set-up — they never got enough chances with the established cricketers playing. Now, when the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman retire, these youngsters would suddenly be thrust on to the big stage and told to perform like the seniors.”
Interestingly, Australia too faced a similar situation when Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer retired one after the other. But they had players like Clarke and Shane Watson, who had been groomed for years to take over the responsibilities. In fact, Peter Siddle was part of the Australian side that lost the Test series 0-2 in India in 2008-09. But he was persisted with, and now leads the pace attack.

Instill, lose, look in the eye, win

“There is no option but to blood in youngsters. There’s no question India will lose a lot of matches initially with youngsters, and it will be humiliating as well. But it is the only way,” Wadekar says. “As good as they were, if Mohinder Amarnath or Sunil Gavaskar had continued to play Tests till they were 40, Tendulkar might not have debuted as early as he did. To think that Rohit Sharma and a couple of other youngsters would all be 27-plus by the time India tour Australia next is a shame.”
Truth be told, India may not get to the top of the ICC Test rankings soon. The likes of Raina, Kohli and Rohit haven’t set the set the stage alight in Test cricket yet, but they are, without doubt, Indian cricket’s biggest hope. Results may not show immediately but in two years, when India returns to Australia, we can at least hope they would give their best shot.