As the ongoing test series progressed, I constantly had an
suspicious view of all the proceedings and its possible outcome to our future
tours; especially the South Africa tour towards the latter half of the year
where we just won’t be up against the best in the business just to redeem our
overseas prowess but also (may) vie for test supremacy.
While the best thing the series has provided is a confident
captain Dhoni, who is back in his elements; all those chatting behind the
stumps with the spinners and even attacking a settled Clarke with close ins for
his bowlers. But the decision that really startled me was to go on with Jadeja
as the no 7 and eventually not giving a go to Rahane before the SA tour. When
most pundits were calling for a no 6 and dismissing Jadeja in that role even in
home series’, MSD was more of looking for a bowling all-rounder to go with 5
bowlers and with an extra spinner. Keeping in mind his decision to go with a
single pacer and thus preparing rank turners disastrously backfired against the
English team, it was sensible to go with good turning tracks and backing our
top six batsmen to pile up the score for our spinners to get into the act. For
me it was a calculated masterstroke from the captain cool and the management.
Now let’s focus on the highly debatable and talked about no
6 slot in the team for the overseas tours. There is a mouthwatering prospect of
going for Sehwag which may come out as another masterstroke there. Now as Vijay
is back again to the test mode, he showed during his debut matches and an
inform Gambhir or already proven Dhawan can give us the require start in SA.
And not being a great supporter of MSD at no 6 overseas, who better than Viru.
Can easily speed along with the tail and can negotiate the second new ball if
situation arrives. And in the future run, he may take up the no 4 slot (which
will be vacant within a year at most), giving experience to the young middle
order then.
A look at our bowling attack: Decision to drop Ojha was
widely criticized as the later was our best bowler in the previous series, but
I believe during the rebuilding stage it is better to groom one who u believe
will be leading your attack overseas too. Ashwin donning that role will be
beneficiary to the team as he can be a great bowling all-rounder in any
condition. SIMILARLY BACKING Ishant after wicket less first two tests is a
indication of looking beyond Zaheer for the leader our pace attack and Ishant
being young and the most experienced needs to be groomed and be given the
confidence for it. While a fit again Umesh will the other option, it may be
fight between the two Kumars for a spot; where Bhuvaneswar has almost taken a
huge lead in the run. Giving a 120-125km/h swing bowler a go against the Aussies
in the dusky tracks almost confirmed his spot, while PK may still be in the
scheme of things with Varun and Dinda.
A settled young combination can still invade the “The Final
Frontier” although the ‘guru’ has changed the sides.
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