India begin transition in Test Cricket
Apart from the solitary pending test in England this summer, India are not scheduled to play any away tests in the near future. The team management has decided it’s time to move on, and rightly so.
After India’s disastarous tour to Australia back in 2011/2, two greats of Indian cricket, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, decided to hang up their boots. Even if the results in Australia had been different, these two batters were pushing the age of 39 and India had a long season at home coming up. It was the right time for a transition to ensure younger batters had a few tests at home to get settled into their roles before India’s visit to South Africa in Dec 2013.
The Indian team is in a similar situation today. Apart from the solitary pending test in England this summer, India are not scheduled to play any away tests in the near future. (Currently, India’s tentative schedule is available until June 2023 and has 0 away tests). In addition, 7 of India’s mainstays in Tests are past the age of 33. The team management has decided it’s time to move on, and it’s hard to argue against this approach.
In fact, if you compare this to the transitions in the past, it’s clear that Indian cricket has a lot more incredible talent today than ever before. India has always been blessed with batters, but in what other era could India dare to tell a 33-year old fast bowler, who has averaged under 23 in his last 30 tests, his services are not needed? Ishant Sharma is definitely the unluckilest of the 4 players dropped today. In 2018, Ishant (along with Bumrah and Shami) broke the record for most wickets by a pace trio in a calendar year in Test history. In 2019-20 phase, he played 7 tests averaging a little over 15 (no, not a typo). And yet after a couple of ordinary tests in 2021 and some injury concerns, the lanky Delhi pacer is out of the Test side. It’s a very tough call on Ishant but it’s a testament to how much depth India’s pace bowling has.
Speaking of depth, the country that tried 10 different wicket-keepers between 1998-2005, now has a better understudy than the excellent Wriddhiman Saha.
Just looking at the options available, the chances of a return (among the 4 dropped) are probably the least for Saha. While he was always tidy behind the stumps, he will also be remembered for a number of solid knocks. My favorite will remain his hundred versus Australia in Ranchi. After conceding 451 in the 1st innings, India was in a little bit of trouble at 328/6 when Saha walked in to bat. Batting more than 80 overs, Saha helped India get to 600 and managed Hazlewood, Cummins, and Lyon very well to compile a solid 117.
In an interview after the innings, Saha mentioned he had a great understanding with Chetestwar Pujara, with whom he shared a partnership of 199, having spent time together on A-tours. From being part of the Indian team that was presented with Test Mace at the end of that series, to being dropped from the Indian side, life has come a full circle for Saha and Pujara.
It’s tough to say whether we will ever see Chetestwar Pujara in Indian whites again or not, but he will surely go down as one of the best number 3 batters to play for India. Arguably India’s best player of spin in the last decade, Pujara showed vulnerability even against this type of bowling in recent times. Despite the dip in his form, the Saurashtra batter managed to play a role in India’s series win in Australia 2020/21 (2nd highest run-scorer) and also made 2 crucial fifties on the last English tour. There’s little doubt that batting conditions have been tough recently, but post-2019, there is no number 3 with 300 or more runs to average as low as Pujara.
Since 2020, Ajinkya Rahane has averaged just 24 and his removal from the position of vice-captain for the recent tour of South Africa was a sign that the writing was on the wall. Perhaps, the call to drop Rahane was the easiest of the 4 especially considering the performances of Shreyas Iyer in the test series against New Zealand. The Mumbai batter has returned to the Ranji Trophy with a hundred and surely will be pushing to make a comeback to the Indian side.
While you could argue for 1 (or maybe 2) of the 4 to be still picked, these are the right moves for Indian cricket. Test Cricket has been incredibly exciting for the past 5 years with a number of solid bowling line-ups, spicy pitches, and teams performing well at home. With England also starting to think about a future past James Anderson and Stuart Broad, there could be a little (temporary) dip in the intensity of Test Cricket.