The feeder lines are clear and uncluttered, as they have been for some time, and this has been one of India’s strengths.
It is possible that we are approaching a transitional phase in Indian cricket, with some stars preparing to make way for a new generation. Not immediately, and maybe not for a while after the England tour, but it’s best to be prepared. The feeder lines are clear and uncluttered, as they have been for some time, and this has been one of India’s strengths.
The average age of a team playing the Headingley Test is just 30, so any discussion on succession may seem premature. But looking at both international and domestic cricket, today’s players leave Test cricket earlier than the previous generation.
live long
Rahul Dravid was 39 when he announced his retirement, Sachin Tendulkar 40, Anil Kumble 38. Can a modern athlete last a long time in spite of better physical condition? Apart from business and family commitments, there is also the temptation of lucrative media offers. Some players voluntarily make clean breaks.
Following the tour of Australia, Dravid and VVS Laxman retired in 2012, followed by Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar the following year, and went on to form the best batting line-up in the history of the game.
Importantly, as they were finishing, they welcomed new kids into the team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara. This is how the baton is passed. Some of these replacements were planned, others came as pleasant surprises. It has always been like this and will continue to be so. There are no guarantees in the game; Even Don Bradman was dropped after his first Test.
This generational overlap is significant. You can trace a straight line from Kapil Dev to Javagal Srinath to Zaheer Khan to Ishant Sharma. Kapil was around when Srinath made his debut, Zaheer bowled with Srinath and Ishant saw Zaheer make his debut. Such patterns may seem inevitable, but they are a tribute to the right selection and baton-passing awareness at the right time.
Virat Kohli is only 32 years old and has already played more Tests than Dravid at that age, apart from T20 by Bucketful. He is the base around which the Indian team will revolve for some time. In the next five or six years, he will take on the role of the babysitter as a step to the new generation. Like Dhoni, and Sourav Ganguly before him, support some players on the basis of instinct and record, while other options fall into the basket, marked as ‘what-so-may’.
dice roll
Selection at the highest level is based on ability and performance; Players build it on one of these bases. When Kumble or Tendulkar was first picked, there was no way of knowing that they would go on to become greats. Kumble was 19, Tendulkar was 16 and the selectors put their reputation on both of them. For every motivated choice, there are many who seem equally qualified but fail at the highest level for one of these reasons: temperament, fatal technical faults, wrong timing.
Sometimes a strong mind can remove a flaw, sometimes a player chosen at the wrong time can be lost forever. Some never know what the right timing might be as their first-class careers overlap with the international careers of more established and successful players. There was once a middle order space during the Tendulkar period, there was no vacancy. Each batsman played over 100 Tests, and many, like Amol Muzumdar (who scored 260 in first-class runs), who might have played in another era, were not easily noticed.
In the years when India had world-class spinners who would easily be included in any other international team, many of them were put on hold. Rajinder Goyal and Padmakar Shivalkar are excellent examples of this; He was kept out of the presence of Bishan Bedi. But there was also VV Kumar, who was a classical leg-spinner against Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. Later Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, who had more than 1,000 Test wickets between them, ended the aspirations of many.
on the edge of a knife
Career also depends on how the team performs. Vijay extends a hand to those who are on the verge of exit, pulling them to safety. In the current team, Pujara redeemed himself by scoring 91 runs in the last Test; Now the focus is on Ajinkya Rahane. Ishant Sharma may be rested from the third Test. In the reserve is Wriddhaman Saha, who is 36 years old.
The players have two more Tests to work on for them – as a team and individually. The series is balanced on a knife’s edge, as are some careers. As paradoxical as it sounds, looking ahead is an ongoing process in the game.
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