Is the Indian batting wall cracking?

You generally don’t associate scores of 18, 44, 3, 23, and 7 with Rahul Dravid in any form of cricket, and it’s all the more shocking to know that these low scores have come in the Test matches. The numbers above indicate the runs scored by Dravid in the last five Test innings that he has played. For a man whose batting revolved and evolved around consistency all throughout his career, these figures don’t make good reading. And as a result of these low scores many experts and fanatics have started to question Dravid’s place in the Indian Test squad, and are voicing their opinion to see him being replaced by a young blood.

Dravid since making his debut in England at Lords in the English summer of 96, where he made an impressive start to his Test career with a brilliant 95, has not looked back, and has always gone from strength to strength as far as the longest format of the game is concerned. Like the current low phase, Dravid went through a lean patch at the end of 2008, when the Aussies and the English toured India, with the scores of 11, 11, 0, 3, 3, and 4. Yes, it’s quite normal for any batsmen or for any sportsmen to go through a low phase in their career. But, in Rahul’s case he is going through a bad phase just at the fag end of his career, and let’s face it he is not getting any younger. So, keeping all these factors in mind, many people are doubting his ability to bounce back and get amongst the runs.

Now let’s look ahead to what factors might have contributed to his downfall?

After watching Dravid struggle to score runs in the series against Sri Lanka, one could make out that, he was clearly short of match practice. Batting well in the nets is alright, but what matters is, how one fares out in the middle. It’s not very easy for any professional cricketer to just come into the team and start flourishing right from the word go. Mind you Dravid has had a pretty long lay-off, before coming into the Tests, as these days he is not a part of the limited over format set up of team India.
So, it is understandable, that Dravid would take some time to get into the groove.
His dismissals in the Tests showed that he wasn’t reacting quickly and was more often than not late on the ball, which led to his demise. This is certainly not the Rahul Dravid of the yesteryears. And one wonders, whether the Indian batting wall has started to crack?

But having said all that, it would be foolish to write off the man of Dravid’s caliber, he has done it all in the past, and can certainly repeat his heroics in the future. Let’s just go down the memory lane and look at his outstanding feats in Test cricket.
Who can forget the number of matches he has won for the team? The number of series he has won, both home and away.

There are some special innings that stand out in people’s memory. Straight away, the innings played at the Eden Garden in Kolkata in the year 2001 comes to mind, he featured in an epic partnership of 376 runs with VVS Laxman, and ended up scoring 180. When the Indians were dead and buried against the Australians, and by the virtue of his and Laxman’s contribution India ended up registering a famous win against the Aussies.

Rahul played another brilliant innings in the second Test at Adelaide in the year 2004, He scored a massive 233 in the first innings, and then followed it up with 72 runs in the second, his first innings contribution was largely responsible for India’s memorable win against the Aussies.

The words determined, courageous, and tenacious perhaps best describe Dravid. And all these three attributes to his batting was exuded, when the Indian team travelled to England in 2007. After having lost the Test match at Lords, India drew the second Test, and was desperate to win the third Test at Leeds. On a seamer friendly pitch, with overcast conditions, the English bowlers were looking to make serious in-roads into the Indian bating line-up, and they managed to get rid of Sehwag early, and then came Dravid, who rose to the occasion by scoring a brilliant 148 under extreme circumstances, thus enabling India to pile on a massive total and beating the English by an innings. This magnanimous effort by Rahul also earned him the man of the match.

Indian batting over the last decade has much depended around the likes of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. And these legendary players will definitely go down as one of the best batsmen to have played cricket for India. And these batsmen made it almost impossible, for the other batters to sneak into the squad, largely due to their performance and also reputation. Yes, these players did hit a lean patch at some point, but the selectors were not very brave enough to replace them abruptly. The selectors did persist with these batsmen as long as they could. But then, with Ganguly’s dip in form, they had no option but to give Yuvraj a chance to prove his credentials to all. But the strong character that Sourav was, he made it into the team with some strong performances in domestic cricket, and then ended his Test career on his own terms, even when he was amongst the runs.

Similarly, Dravid too now is feeling the heat, as there are a whole bunch of outrageously talented Indian batsmen waiting in the wings. There are a lot of young and promising batsmen who are looking forward to cementing their place in the Indian Test squad. The likes of Suresh Raina, and Yuvraj Singh are already in the scheme of things, but the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Virat Kohli are still trying to make an appearance in the Test squad. All these players have already made it into the Indian one day setup, and have drawn a lot of attention. But, the one name that is often being discussed as an ideal replacement for Dravid , is of Cheteshwar Pujara of Saurashtra who has been doing exceedingly well in first class cricket.
Cheteshwar Pujara is arguably one of the most promising young batsman in India today, he has been consistently knocking at the doors of Test cricket for quite some time now.

His technique is classical, looks compact at the crease and is strong on both sides of the wicket. He was also one of the top run-getters in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy season, Pujara also, signed a lucrative deal with the IPL franchisee Kolkata Knight Riders in March 2008. In October he was picked for the Challenger Trophy and later scored two triple- centuries for Saurashtra in the under-22 tournament. He followed this performance, with another triple-hundred against Orissa in the 2008-09 Ranji Trophy season.

The Saurashtra player had a very fruitful tour of England and Scotland recently, not only as a player but also as a captain of the India ‘A’ team. He scored a double century 208 not out against the West Indies ‘A’ in a Test.
Many experts were miffed with Yuvraj’s selection ahead of Pujara, and strongly felt that Pujara should have been in the touring party to Sri Lanka, after his consistent performance at the first class level.

Another batsman not so young in Subramaniam Badrinath is also, trying to make his way into the team. Badrinath has been the main stay of Tamil-Nadu batting since some years now after scoring heavily for them in the domestic circuit. Badrninath too, has been waiting for an opportunity to establish himself in the Indian Test squad, he was initially selected in the squad for the home series against Australia in 2008, but did not make his debut, he was finally given a chance to debut against the visiting South Africans, unfortunately he did not do too well to impress the selectors to keep his place in the team.

So, one has to wait and see whether he will be given another chance to prove himself.
The Indian team is lined up to play eight Tests before going into the World cup, with Australia arriving for two Tests at home and the Kiwis will follow for another two Tests, but the Indian tour to South Africa for the three Tests is certainly going to be the most demanding task, as it will test the Indian batting. Ideally one would like to have batsmen of Dravid’s stature in the team, on a tough tour. As, we all know he thrives on such situations. So, will the selectors be brave enough to ignore Dravid for the upcoming Tests series? Well, one wouldn’t think so, but if they do it will be at their own peril.

The dilemma for the selectors is that, all the youngsters are consistently performing at the first class level and some have even made it to the one day squad, so the selectors might just feel that the time is appropriate to give the youngsters a chance to represent the Indian team in the longer version of the game.
The predicament doesn’t end there for the selectors, as there is stiff competition amongst the youngsters. This is giving the selectors a bit of a headache in making a choice. But this is indeed a very good sign for the future of Indian batting, that a whole bunch of talented cricketers are coming through the ranks.

Future of Sri Lankan spin bowling looks bright with Mendis, Herath and Randiv.

So, the greatest off spinner ever Muttiah Muralitharan has finally bid adieu to Test match cricket after playing his last match at his favourite venue Galle against the Indians. It was a fairy tale ending to his much celebrated Test career, as he went on to grab those eight wickets to reach a phenomenal landmark of 800 test wickets. There by, becoming the only bowler to have achieved that feat. And that he contributed to his teams victory, was an icing on the cake for him. Looking back the great Murali could not have written the script any better.

So, the greatest off spinner ever Muttiah Muralitharan has finally bid adieu to Test match cricket after playing his last match at his favourite venue Galle against the Indians. It was a fairy tale ending to his much celebrated Test career, as he went on to grab those eight wickets to reach a phenomenal landmark of 800 test wickets. There by, becoming the only bowler to have achieved that feat. And that he contributed to his teams victory, was an icing on the cake for him. Looking back the great Murali could not have written the script any better.

And the Sri Lankan team has been extremely blessed in this factor, as they have Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath and Suraj Randiv coming up the ranks.

Mendis, Randiv and Herath have all played fair amount of cricket, to take up the responsibility of shouldering the Lankan spin attack. The three of them even played in the Tests against the Indians and put on an impressive performance by picking up wickets at regular intervals.

So now, let’s look at how these three spinners have evolved since their first appearance for their national side.

Ajantha Mendis announced his arrival into the international cricket, after he completely destroyed the Indian batting line up in the Asia cup finals in 2008, and then again bamboozled the Indian batters on their tour of the emerald islands in the same year. The Indian batsmen couldn't’t come to terms with his barrage of carrom balls, the quicker ones and of course the googlies. And it left them in dire straits.

But over a period of time, the Indians have solved the Mendis Mystery and are far more comfortable negotiating him. But having said that, he is still able to make inroads into any batting line up. He also bowled a superb spell against the Indians in a warm up match before the Test matches started, and he once again had them in trouble picking 6 wickets in one innings. Despite such a good show, he was strangely ignored for the first Test by the selectors, and then was brought back for the second, after Murali decided to leave the stage. Mendis, was in action once again as picked up 4 wickets in the first innings, with important scalps of Laxman and Raina.

Mendis is not a prodigious turner of the cricket ball, but it’s his accuracy and his deception in the air and of the wicket, that makes him a very difficult customer to contend in conditions conducive to spin bowling.

Meanwhile, Rangana Herath is another spinner who, after much struggle early in his career seems to be cementing his place in the Sri Lankan line up.

Herath ever since the time he made his debut in the Tests for his team more than a decade ago, has been in and out of the squad for various reasons. Whenever an opportunity was presented to Herath, he did reasonably well for his side especially in home conditions, and let’s not forget that he always had to live under the shadows of Muralitharan. This certainly wouldn’t have been easy. Time and again Herath was dropped, as he couldn’t produce the goods that his senior colleague Murali could. But Herath consistently kept doing well in the domestic circuit and was knocking on the door of the selectors.

But, of late he has been featuring regularly for the Lankans in the Test matches. And has added the carrom ball and the quicker delivery to his bowling repertoire. Now that Murali’s gone, Herath is probably the most experienced spinner left in the Lankan squad. So, obviously he has to respond well to the situation, and at the same time should help in guiding the young spinners in the squad.

The second and the third test match against the Indian’s saw another exciting lanky spinner in Suraj Randiv come to the fore. Suraj comes across as an orthodox offie, with a neat action, who relies more on his spin and guile to beat the batsmen, and with his height, he is able to get the extra bounce, which the batsmen don’t like.

Suraj played fifteen ODI’s before getting a chance in the Tests. But, he waited for his time and when he was given the opportunity to play, he did not disappoint his captain and the selectors. Although, he did get only a couple of wickets in his first test, but mind you none of the bowlers in either side managed to do well, as the pitch in SSC Colombo was a graveyard for the bowlers. But Randiv immediately, put up a stellar performance in the last match of the series by picking up 9 wickets in the match. He pouched 4 wickets in the first innings, and claimed all the 5 Indian wickets to fall in the second innings. His dismissals included the priced scalps of Sehwag, Dravid, and above all, of the master Tendulkar. His team may not have won the match despite his splendid bowling, but his ability to create problems for the batters was clearly evident.

No doubt, that Murali’s absence will be felt by the Sri Lankan team, but having said that, the three spinners are capable of carrying the work load in the future, and they certainly have all the accolades to produce results for their team. It remains to be seen, how well these three spinners are able to complement each other, when they are operating together.

But the bigger challenge for all the three spin bowlers will be to get wickets when they are playing on foreign soil. Especially on the Australian, English and South African wickets, where historically the Sri Lankan spinners have struggled. The talent and the ability is very eminent in them, but they will have to show a lot of character and most importantly a lot of patience to prevail in those conditions. For the moment though, the future of Sri Lankan spin bowling is certainly in the good hands of Mendis, Herath and Randiv.