India will count on their veteran trio to come good

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An England side packed with South Africans and coached by a former Zimbabwean batsman would have made W.G. Grace do a somersault in bewilderment.

England’s grip over the former colonies is not what it used to be the good doctor would likely thunder into his beard.
For that matter, imagine the two top-ranked teams in the world being coached by players from Zimbabwe, widely regarded as the weakest cricketing nation in the world. Has the cricket world gone topsy-turvy or does this reflect not just democratisation of the sport, but also free-market practices at play?
Such quirks and queries, however, are only sidelights to the main show: the Test series between India and England which commences on Thursday with the first match at the venerated Lord’s in a deluge of statistics, steeped in sentimentalism and surrounded by unparalleled hype.
Usually, pre-match statistics tend to be mundane or needless, but here they are compelling. The Lord’s match will be the 2,000th in Test history. Normally, one would expect such a landmark Test — and to be played at Lord’s — to feature Australia rather than India. But times, they have a changed, to paraphrase the immortal Bob Dylan line.
Indeed, such has been the build-up to this series that when Andrew Strauss suggested that India-England cricket could become bigger than the Ashes, the England captain was neither biffed on the head for heresy nor packed off to the nearest asylum for lunacy. Instead, the knowledgeable nodded sagely in agreement, suggesting a newfound acceptance of Indian cricket’s rise in stature, and not just in terms of commerce.
To highlight some other crucial statistics, this will also be the 100th Test between India and England, and not the least, also offers Sachin Tendulkar — who is perched on 99 international hundreds — the opportunity to reach a century of centuries. The last mentioned factor has, of course, had not just the Indian diaspora but the entire cricket world in thrall.
There has been no bigger talisman for cricket in the last two decades. Juxtapose this with the fact that Tendulkar has never scored a century at Lord’s, is most likely on his last visit to England and the massive expectations and hoopla can be easily understood. Interestingly, Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman between them have also scored 99 Test centuries (apart from the small matter of 35152 runs!). Like Tendulkar, neither Dravid nor Laxman have a hundred at Lord’s (in fact Laxman has none in England) so there is some landmark to be achieved even if any of the three score a century in this match.
Add Sehwag, Gambhir and Dhoni to this trio and you get a batting line-up that would stand scrutiny against the best in the long history of the game.
The newer batsmen may appear more aggressive and ready to take greater risks, but that is largely because of the huge psychological reassurance Tendulkar , Dravid and Laxman have provided with their solidity and consistency over such a long period.
Indeed, in post-War cricket, India’s current line-up would not suffer in comparison with some of the greatest teams: Bradman’s Invincibles of 1948, the West Indies of the 1950s featuring the three Ws, the West Indies of the early 1960s with Hunte, Kanhai, Butcther, Nurse, Sobers, and Australia from 1995-2005 with Hayden, Langer, Ponting, the Waugh twins, Martyn and Gilchrist.
But it would be a travesty to discuss these three stalwarts only by statistical measure. Over the past decade and a half, Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman — with their fascinatingly different approaches to batsmanship — have provided Indian cricket not just with runs and centuries, but style, character sustenance and credibility too.
By common reckoning, they are on their last tour of England and sentiment for their success runs wide and deep. Failure to score too many runs in this series may not affect their status in the game by more than a whit, but success would make it even more exalted.
More importantly, this could help India win and establish reaffirm their suzerainty in Test cricket. What could be bigger inspiration?