Give youngsters time to blossom, they are the future
A lot of eyebrows were raised when the Indian selectors announced the team for the Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia. Quite a few big names were missing, and some young hopefuls had been drafted in. The most notable omission from the squad was the in-form Saurav Ganguly, which sparked off protests even beyond the borders of his native Bengal. The response to the exclusion of the other big two, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, was relatively subdued because they had not been considered for previous limited-over tournaments either. Only the ever-reliable Sachin Tendulkar was very much there, free of any controversy whatsoever.
Former Indian cricketers were clearly divided over the issue. While some like Ajit Wadekar and Ashok Malhotra expressed their reservations over discarding experience altogether, others like Erapalli Prasanna and Ravi Shastri thought it was time to groom our youngsters for the future. Wadekar felt that the absence of three senior batsmen in a tough series involving Australia could prove costly for the team. Prasanna, however, was all for youth when he said one-day cricket was for young legs and the selectors were right in preferring youth to experience in this case. According to Shastri, a keen observer of the game, one-day cricket is not all about batting; he felt giving away 40 runs on the field after scoring a half century meant little in the final analysis. Ageing reflexes, slowness on the field, poor running between the wickets were some of the factors that went against the seniors during the selection process.
Now that the youth brigade of the new-look Indian team is already in the thick of things, it won’t be a bad idea to have a look at their performances so far. The two Sharmas, Ishant and Rohit, have already made a huge impression with the former being already described as one of the world’s best in the business. The fiery pace with which Ishant has troubled the top batsmen is something perhaps never seen in an Indian fast bowler before. Rohit has shown that along with the right temperament, he has all the strokes in the book. While Gautam Gambhir has been in excellent form, Robin Uthappa has hardly got an opportunity coming in at number seven or eight. One should not judge Manoj Tiwary by his failure in the solitary innings he played; he has enough talents to prove himself soon. Those who have clearly performed below par, ironically, include Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh – both mature and experienced one-day players. The rest of the younger members of the squad, such as Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla and Pravin Kumar, have not yet been tested and are eagerly waiting for their chances.
The visible improvements in the new team include a much better running between the wickets, resulting in increased number of singles and twos. Even a veteran like Tendulkar is now trying to match the speed of his younger partners in running down the pitch. The ground fielding is also looking sharper in spite of Yuvraj being banished to mid-off or mid-on from his customary backward point because of injury fears.
If the selectors are really looking forward and focusing on youth as part of a long-term policy, they should not abandon it at the first signs of failure. If the team loses to a side like Australia, these youngsters shouldn’t be seen as a bunch of incompetent pretenders and forgotten for ever. Indian teams with loads of experience have lost to Australia numerous times in the past. These younger players have enough talents that should be given time to settle down and blossom; in the near future, they will have to replace the seniors even in the longer version of the game. In them lies the future of Indian cricket.
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A lot of eyebrows were raised when the Indian selectors announced the team for the Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia. Quite a few big names were missing, and some young hopefuls had been drafted in. ...
