India tour of Australia: Cracks run through the middle

How that dream fizzled out for him, and for us, though. It was another Australia tour, the one in ’92, that stubbed out the last embers of a hope of a revival. The sight of Merv Hughes hounding him with fastish legbreaks won’t be forgotten by the fans of that era. It was a leg break from a fast bowler then; now it’s a left-arm sizzler from another pacer to another No 3. Same difference. Will Pujara go the way of Manjrekar?

At the MCG, when it mattered the most, Pujara had let his team down again. India ended up saving the Melbourne Test but without the certified bulwark of their batting line-up playing much of a role in it.

It wasn’t the first time this year that a stage had been set for a customary Pujara rearguard. It happened repeatedly in England, match after match in fact after the Lord’s victory. And just like in Melbourne, Pujara came a cropper on each of those occasions. It wasn’t just his failure to produce back-from-the-dead forays that stood him up in the last 12 months. There’s more to the Pujara slip from pedestal story.

For starters, let’s rewind the clock to December 2013. A young Indian team is departing to South Africa on the back of a dramatic farewell not only to the foremost cricketer to come from their land but also a lengthy epoch.

The batting line-up in particular reeks off inexperience, undiscovered potential and plenty of promise. There is but one symbol of stability and reliability in their midst. No it’s not Kohli or even Rahane. It’s a surreal and saintly presence. Pujara at No.3 has established himself. Pujara has made a name for himself by doing so. He’s got two double-hundreds to his credit already. He’s scoring runs like it is a pastime. He averages 65.50. By the end of the year, that average has climbed to 66.50 with a century at Wanderers, the latest feather in the cap. He’s not the only one to overcome the South African challenge though.

The likes of Kohli and Rahane have staked claim to be regular members of the Test line-up. But what he’s done is enhance his reputation further as being the bedrock of the next generation of Indian batting.

He averages 66.25. He averages 108 balls her innings. His place in the XI looks the most secure. A year later, Pujara finds himself on the brink. He’s averaged 24.15 in 10 Tests. His ball-per-innings average has come down to 58 and his overall Test average has come down to 47.11. In many ways, Pujara’s 2014 has been nothing but average as well. Suddenly No.3 doesn’t look as steadfast.Post the South Africa tour, the transition from the Tendulkar-era seemed to have taken place without much drama in the batting line-up. But as the year has progressed, that assuredness has suffered a major slip. Their No.3 struggled to come to terms with the lateral movement in New Zealand and England, and the extra bounce in Australia.

Their No.4 might have ransacked the Australian bowling in the last few weeks, but he was literally non-existent six months ago in England, where he averaged 13.40.

Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan, touted as a like-for-like replacement for Virender Sehwag has been dropped once already from the team and has at times looked far from a Test opener, on foreign soil anyway.

But it’s Pujara and his travails that have been the big surprise.

Here was a batsman touted for his technical nous and his ability to cope with any attack in the world. But if it was the moving ball that got him in England, it’s his evident discrepancy in skill to tackle the rising ball that has led to his downfall Down Under.

The most disturbing thing about it has been his penchant to get out in the same fashion, poking at deliveries outside off-stump, which is an evident sign of a batsman dealing with extreme insecurity. It’s not that Pujara doesn’t attempt to ride the bounce. He truly does.

But his low hands mean that he’s always imbalanced at the crease while doing so, leading to him playing the delivery with an open-face of the bat, and hence edging more deliveries than missing them. It’s a dismissal that is becoming worryingly patented for Pujara in foreign climes.

But he’s been troubled not just by the bounce that the Australian pacers have been generating but also that of Nathan Lyon.

Getting starts 

For someone who’s been brought up on a diet of off-spin back home, Pujara has faced Lyon like a lactose intolerant person being forced to down a gallon of milk. It’s not that he hasn’t scored runs. He got a 73 in the first innings at Adelaide and then made 43 in trying conditions on the fourth morning at the Gabba. But he’s yet to look comfortable at the crease. Yet to look like Pujara.

Historically, it’s the No.3 who sets up Test matches. It’s the No.4 who closes out games. And it’s when both are firing that teams generally come good. So far in Australia, India have trudged along as if with just one functional kidney with the other failing to cope with the change in climes, the change in pressure.

And it’s shown in their results.

Pujara’s struggles aboard 

In the 10 Tests Cheteshwar Pujara has played overseas in 2014, India’s No.3 has made just 483 runs at an average of 24.15 with no centuries to his name. Failures on the tours to New Zealand, England and now Australia have eroded the reputation of the 26-year-old.

Over the past year Pujara’s average has fallen from 67.63 — at the end of the first Test against South Africa at the New Wanderers Stadium in December 2013 — to 47.11. Incidentally his 153 in the 2nd innings of the drawn match against South Africa was his last in Test cricket.

The last time Pujara’s average was lower than his current one of 47.11 was in his fifth Test (40.37). For 18 Test matches — 6th to 23rd — he averaged at least 51-plus.

22 Number of innings Pujara has gone without a century in Test matches. In his first 16 matches he scored six Test tons, including 204 versus Australia in Hyderabad and 206 not out versus England in Ahmedabad.

But he has now gone eleven games —all overseas — without reaching the three-figure mark. His highest during this period was 73 at Adelaide in the first Test of the current series.

29.40 His average in overseas games, significantly lesser than his career average of 47.11. In 14 Tests abroad Pujara has made 794 runs with one century (at Johannesburg). He has made five of his six Test tons, including 204 and 206* at home.