MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLE

A tri-series in Malaysia followed, where India failed to make the final. The five one-dayers in South Africa were a complete disaster and suddenly, with Sourav Ganguly back and batting like he did in his prime, things were right back to when the Process began. Young India had, at the end of the day, failed to bully their way past the old guard.
Now, going into this series against Australia, Team India seem to be starting the process of transition all over again. Good timing?

8220;I don8217;t think they should be looking at change for the sake of it,8221; says Ajit Wadekar, former India captain, coach and selector. 8220;You cannot experiment against a good team, not at the risk of losing a series.8221;

But there lies another problem. While the old guard continues to make statements, they aren8217;t as loud and clear as they were in the past. And the replacements, at least going by the Irani Cup match, look like they8217;ve spent far too much energy banging on immovable doors.

In one corner, you have the been-there done-thats well past their glorious primes, but still good enough for an earnest battle against those in the other corner, which has a clutch of players with undeniable talent who have suddenly walked into boots a few sizes too large.
A few years back, there were lots of options, but no place in the eleven. Now, when the cracks are showing on the door, no one8217;s willing to shove a foot in and break it open.

Bad timing
Television commentators have reminded viewers around the world again and again and a few more times, just in case we forgot that you 8216;just can8217;t bowl at the pads of an Indian batsman8217;.
India has built its batting reputation on the strength of timing 8212; from Sachin Tendulkar8217;s straight drive, a shot played with more authority and conviction than a lawyer arguing a case, to Sourav Ganguly8217;s off-drive, which is not so much a stroke as a gentle nudge, convincing the red cherry that the boundary line would be a fair place to travel to. VVS Laxman8217;s lazy punch, Rahul Dravid8217;s elegant on-drive, Virender Sehwag8217;s entire kitbag of tricks. But unfortunately, off the field, the timing8217;s gone awry.

Even before that 2006 series in the Caribbean, there were times when the doors of the Indian middle-order had creaked under constant hammering from the outside.
VVS Laxman, now one of the golden oldies, famously broke his way back into the team by scoring a string of centuries in domestic cricket.

Then there was the time, in 2001-02, when Yuvraj and Kaif were helping India chase down big totals match after match, one blade slashing and slicing, the other adding a nick here and a cut there, the two in tandem leaving opposition attacks bleeding runs to numbers six and seven. Yuvraj8217;s form was such that he had to be convinced to open the innings as he just couldn8217;t be kept out of the Test XI any longer.

Unanswered questions
But now, when the search for replacements has begun in the right earnest, the cupboard looks to be quivering. 8220;It8217;s not that there8217;s no talent,8221; says Anshuman Gaekwad. 8220;Guys like Raina, Kaif, Badrinath have got what it takes. But they haven8217;t made the most of their opportunities. The seniors, even if they aren8217;t batting as well as they were two years back, still know how to finish a job. If they get to 60 or 70, they know how to convert that into big hundreds. The youngsters have managed attractive 30s and 40s, or even 50s and 60s, but they need to learn about finishing the job from the seniors,8221; he says. 8220;After all, even if they8217;re not as good as they were at one time, they8217;re still good enough.8221;
The dip for the seniors hasn8217;t been alarming. The runs have been coming, it8217;s just that the authority has been slowly seeping away.

Dravid, who most would have nominated to bat for their lives, now looks to be batting for pride; battling to prove he can still shut shop and forgetting, in the process, that he possesses a mean square cut in his repertoire.

Each of Sourav Ganguly8217;s runs continues to add to a remarkable comeback story, but the calmness and grace with which he got them on that famous trip to South Africa has, at least occasionally, been replaced by a sense of desperation when put under pressure.

Sachin Tendulkar has a tendency, especially in the longer version, to go into a shell, while Laxman, 33, is stuck in the middle of a junior-senior debate and continues to carry an invisible burden of expectation, perhaps out of habit more than anything else.
Leaving Ganguly out of the Irani Cup tie was a clear indication from the outgoing selection committee headed by Dilip Vengsarkar that his time had come.

But the way the match panned out has given the men who took over a fair bit to chew on. If nothing else, the quality of the pitch ensured Anil Kumble finished the game more than a few strands of hair short. A high-profile clash that was meant to ask a few questions of the men waiting to step into the impending gaps in the middle-order didn8217;t throw up any answers.

Top guns
The one area that India didn8217;t need options was at the top, where Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have made themselves at home. But the most impressive fringe batsmen, both in the first innings, were discarded India openers Wasim Jaffer and Aakash Chopra.
S Badrinath, on the other hand, looked completely out of sorts in the first innings, while Kaif threw it away after 29 comfortable runs. Kaif got out second ball on his next turn, while Badri looked only slightly more comfortable than he did the first time around. Neither, at the end of the day, would have given Kumble what he was looking for 8212; a batsman ready to take on the best in the world.

Over the last few years, there have generally been in-form ODI batsmen waiting to be pitch-forked into the Test side to fill short-term injury induced holes. Right now, there seem to be none, with batsmen such as Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa and even Yuvraj himself, unable to hold down their ODI spots with any conviction.
In the longer run, the Kaifs, the Rainas or the Badrinaths could grow into reliable Test batsmen. But with the Indian batting looking frail as it is and coming up against the world champions, there is a definite problem.

Should the risk of blooding youngsters for Test cricket have been taken against weaker teams, perhaps? 8220;Well, the process has to start somewhere,8221; Gaekwad says. 8220;They have to strike a balance, and they8217;ll have to take a risk. It8217;s an extremely tricky situation.8221;

Tricky it is. The new selection committee, headed by Kris Srikkanth, will have an unenviable first assignment when they sit down to pick the squad for the four-Test series on Monday, three days before Yuvraj Singh8217;s Board President8217;s XI take on the visiting Australians. Unfortunately for them, their job will not get any easier after that, for this may be the committee that oversees the exit of some of Indian cricket8217;s biggest names 8212; and by 8216;oversee the exits8217;, we mean 8216;take the flak for8217;.
Picking a squad for a big series two days into a job is hard enough as it is, but the players aren8217;t making things any easier.

SubramaniAm Badrinath
He8217;s made a career out of cutting domestic attacks to pieces, notching up nearly 5000 first-class runs at an average of 55, with 15 centuries and 20 half-centuries in 65 games. Impressed on his ODI debut in Sri Lanka, but his Irani Cup tie show might have pushed his Test debut back.

Yuvraj singh
The obvious choice to step into the hole sometime back, he8217;s practically out of the race. A big hundred against Pakistan last year earned him a Test spot to Australia, but a string of low scores followed. He then had a horrendous run against Ajantha Mendis in the Sri Lanka ODI series.

Mohammad Kaif
Got dropped from the Indian team at a time when he was probably at his best. He did well on India8217;s 2006 tour of the West Indies but lost his place after low scores in Malaysia and South Africa. But he8217;s done it before, and he could get a look in despite a forgettable Irani Cup match.

Rohit Sharma
Projected as the best thing to have happened to Indian cricket after impressive performances in Australia and the IPL, a string of 30s and 40s proved insufficient. Had made the Test squad against Sri Lanka, but a loss of form 8212; 72 runs in five innings there 8212; has come as a reality check.

Suresh Raina
Made an impact early in his ODI career, but fell out of favour before the World Cup. Was forgotten for a while, but has now completed a successful comeback into the one-day side. Picked to lead India A against the Kiwis, he could come into the picture later in the series.