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Opinion

What is stopping this Indian team from winning?

Roar Guru
15th August, 2021
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Roar Guru
15th August, 2021
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The fourth day of the Lord’s Test between India and England saw Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara save the Indian innings from collapsing for a low score.

Is the success of Rahane and Pujara good news for India or bad news for India? I think it is bad news for India.

Indian cricket boasts of a surfeit of talent in both batting and bowling. When they had a similar pool of talent, Australia and West Indies dominated world cricket.

Is this Indian team dominating Test cricket today? The results against the Kiwis and the English in their home conditions will give you the answer quite clearly, which is a no.

Why is it so? There are three reasons

Cheteshwar Pujara’s batting
Pujara comes to bat after two fast scoring openers. If the openers succeed, his job is to continue their momentum and not let the opposition get back into the match.

What does Pujara do? He sucks the momentum out with his slow batting and hands over the initiative to the opponents.

If the openers fail, he has no tools to wrest the initiative from the opposition. For example, he spent three sessions on the fourth day at Lord’s, patting back half volleys from the fast bowlers and playing long hops from Moen Ali safely to the point fielder.

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Despite sucking up time, when he got out, where did he leave India? India was just 128 runs ahead and still in danger of losing the Test match.

Do you reckon it takes the unique ability that Pujara possesses that only he could have batted to save India at that juncture? An organised batsman like Surya Kumar Yadav could also have saved India, but most importantly, scored way more runs in the time and took the game away from the English.

All that Pujara’s batting these days can do is to delay the inevitable. Why does the team need a slow batting, single skilled player when more dynamic players in the wings can take the initiative and move the team to winning positions?

Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP via Getty Images)

Ajinkya Rahane’s batting
Ajinkya Rahane’s problem is his inconsistency with the bat over the past few years. He has made it a habit to score some runs only when he is about to get dropped.

Until he gets to the last salon and hurriedly has his drink, India loses Test matches like the WTC finals that he could have batted well and saved.

Why does it have to get to the brink before he makes any meaningful contribution? Despite playing three sessions did he take India to safety? No.

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When he got out, India were just 140 runs ahead of England. It clearly shows that occupying the crease is not enough. We need players who score runs freely and put enough distance between the teams. I raise the same question that I raised with Pujara.

What is so special about Ajinkya that only he can bring that specialty to the team? Won’t India better invest in a younger gun that will consistently score faster and help India dominate in this golden age of talent?

India has enough talent in its cricket to unearth few more Rishabh Pants who will bat well at the Test level and also score runs that will put the team in winning positions.

Virat Kohli’s captaincy
Now that Pujara and Rahane have scored runs in the Lord’s Test, the revamp of the Indian middle-order will most likely be delayed for many more months. With Kohli not scoring runs, he will have little moral authority to drop Pujara and Rahane, particularly after this Lord’s performance of the duo.

So, India will continue to play these two veteran cricketers who will prevent India from forging ahead. Added to this decision, Virat also seems not to learn the proper lessons from defeats. India did not lose the WTC finals because they had only three fast bowlers.

They lost because of poor batting in both the innings. The current team composition that carries four pure bowlers and three out of form batters is not the way to forge ahead. India should rather fail playing younger batsmen in its attempt to re-energise the middle order rather than continue to tread water with Pujara and Rahane.

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