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Journalism of Courage
A few days back before the Mumbai cricket team flew out to Delhi for their second match of the Ranji season against Railways, captain Suryakumar Yadav says he had chat with Amol Muzumdar, a former Mumbai skipper. The shock defeat of the 40-time Ranji champions at the hands of Jammu and Kashmir was still painfully raw and Muzumdar tried to boost the new skipper’s confidence.
“He told me that we could recover from a poor start. He said that back in the 2006/07 season, Mumbai lost their first game (they were forced to follow on after conceding the innings lead) to Bengal and we had lost three matches including an outright defeat against Hyderabad. But Mumbai came back that year to win the Ranji Trophy. And if that side could do it, this current side could do it as well,” says Yadav.
Pep talks however have the habit of glossing over unhelpful details from a motivational big picture. What Muzumdar failed to mention, is that the team that ultimately went on to beat Bengal in the 2006/07 Ranji final included five other players, apart from himself, who had represented India — Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Jaffer, Romesh Powar, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar. Incidentally, that squad had also featured Rohit Sharma.
At least on the basis of name recall value, the current Mumbai squad doesn’t match. “This is the first time I am seeing a Mumbai team that is so weak,” is how a blunt Sunil Joshi, coach of the J&K team, had said. Of the squad that will play Railways at the Karnail Stadium on Sunday, only Abhishek Nayar has any international experience (3 ODIs). With 70 first class caps, Nayar is also the team’s most experienced member. Captain Suryakumar Yadav has 26.
The experience crunch for Mumbai isn’t a case of diminishing talent. Ajinkya Rahane, was a regular fixture in the squad until last season (He played two matches before being called up for the 2013 New Zealand series) and Rohit Sharma used to be regular (He played 6 matches in the 2012/13 season) This year Dhawal Kulkarni got called up as a cover after Bhuvneshwar Kumar was injured in Australia. Zaheer wasn’t fit enough at the start of the season and the loss of Wasim Jaffer, who fractured a finger in the J&K game, has only made the crunch worse.
Pros & cons
Yadav says there are advantages of having a young squad. “The intensity never dips over three sessions,” he says. However, according to Harvinder Sandhu, coach of the opposition Railways side, the flip side could far outweigh any positives. Railways themselves are playing the season without Murali Kartik who retired earlier this year, and Sandhu says his side are getting used to managing without an experienced head inside the field. “There are times when a pair of inexperienced bowlers will be doing all the right things but because they aren’t getting wickets, they will feel they need to do something else. It’s at times like this that a senior bowler like Kartik could sense when a wicket was about to fall and ensure the bowlers keep things tight,” says Sandhu.
The same holds true for a senior batsman as well. “If the bowlers are dominating, someone like Jaffer can guide an inexperienced batsman at the other end,” says Sandhu. “It also makes things easier for the bowlers when you have a newer batsman because you can get away with a few bad deliveries. On the other hand if you bowl 50 balls at Jaffer’s legs, you will be hit for 50 fours,” adds the former India pacer.
As such Mumbai skipper Yadav admits that his role extends beyond that of captaincy. “I’m not just a captain but also a middle order batsman. Seeing as this team has a lot of youngsters and every wicket is new for them. They will all look to bat around me. Earlier I would look to bat 100-120 balls. Now I need to be around for 160-180. I have to be more responsible,” says Yadav.
While the jolt against J&K served as a wakeup call, Yadav admits that Mumbai cricket has a long road ahead. “We are looking to the next three years to build a strong Mumbai team. We have a new generation of players coming up. It’s difficult to lose players like Dhawal, Rohit and Ajinkya. I can’t say the youngsters are going to fill in their shoes but we are trying to do our best.”
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