Feb 11 : No one would have expected the first Test between India and South Africa to pan out the way it did. But then, who could have foreseen the freakish run-up to the game itself? Having said that, it is clear that the selection committee got things badly wrong
in drawing up the squad for Nagpur, leaving the batting suddenly exposed as India’s weak link once two batsmen — one of them half-fit to start with — were forced out of the game. For so long the backbone of the side, a line-up that has won or saved games around the world suddenly looked vulnerable. Full credit to Graeme Smith and his men for spotting the areas of weakness and exploiting them to the full. In a sense, the failure of the batting order goes some way in obscuring the fact that for some time now, the Indians have been banking too much on one bowler, Zaheer Khan, with the others chipping in occasionally. At Nagpur, Zaheer was the only one who looked capable of testing the opposition, and the support he received from the three others was woeful. The result was in its own way a salutary lesson in how things can change around in a hurry. Not two weeks ago, the 2-0 sweep over Bangladesh seemed to indicate all was well, but too many chinks had been exposed for top sides to ignore.
The use of the short ball by even the Bangladeshi medium pacers, which had such a knock-on effect on India’s fortunes, would have been a loud and clear signal that the Indians are still vulnerable to quality fast bowling, particularly with a significantly weakened middle order. This the top-ranked bowler in the world — Dale Steyn — exposed in cruel fashion, ripping out five wickets for next to nothing to all but settle the issue on the third day itself. The question now is, can Team India recover sufficiently to post a challenge in the only other Test of the series, at Kolkata, in three days time?
Chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth had admitted they erred in picking a semi-fit V.V.S. Laxman, but that is only part of the problem. In bald terms, the replacements for Laxman and Rahul Dravid could not sustain the pressure with senior batsmen going cheaply in either innings — Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir the first time round, and Virender Sehwag and Gambhir when India were battling to save the match. In typical fashion, attempts are on to make sure that Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men get the best chance to draw level with the curator at the Eden Gardens being asked to prepare a "turner" that will assist the Indian spinners. He is reportedly resisting such "suggestions" so far, but the fact of the matter is that South Africa’s lone spinner in Nagpur got twice the number of wickets his two Indian counterparts managed. If India are to hit back at the visitors — and there is no reason to suppose they will not — it calls for a strong overall response and not just papering over the cracks. It will not be easy as the Nagpur defeat was only the third by an innings and more in a home series in the last 25 years. And the opponents the other two times too were the same — South Africa.