Let us not allow complacency to creep in yet

India might have won their recent home test series against Australia comprehensively with the last of them folding under 3 days. Sure enough, with a historic 4-0 whitewash to celebrate against a team with an aura like Australia, it is reason enough to celebrate.

There are enough reasons to raise a toast to the series - the young top order of Vijay, Dhawan and Pujara displaying rock-solid partnerships; the spin combination working viciously through the Australians’defence; the emergence of Jadeja as a surprise trump-card to add to the bowling guile of Ashwin and the useful contributions of the pace bowling unit & the lower middle order in batting.

But let’s just check our celebrations before we start believing that we are anywhere close to the summit in Test cricket.  Some experts including former captains have rightfully warned the celebrations from going overboard.

The next test series that India play is against the mighty South Africans in their own backyard, who at the moment, are bulldozing their way against all opposition irrespective of the conditions.

The lack of form in the core of India’s middle order in batting (Read – Sachin Tendulkar); the by now accepted norm & inability to knock off the opposition’s tail and finally the slip-catching seem to be the only chinks in the Indian team. Or so we would like to think.

We as a nation and a set of administrators have in the past, often displayed the tendency to get carried away and have refused to take note of the undercurrents.  

Here are the reasons why the Indian team management cannot let Complacency creep in:

Performances in the recent past

Since the last time the 2 teams met, South Africa have played 19 Tests – 10 at home and 9 away winning 12 of them with a Winning percentage of 63%, the same shooting up to 80% at home. India on the other hand have played 24 Test matches in the same period – 13 at home and 11 away with a winning % of just 38%, failing to register even a single overseas win in the interim.

Put together, the recent Proteas’ winning % at home and India’s winning % overseas provide a daunting visual thought to the Indian fan.

South Africa in Tests since Indian tour of SA in 2010-11
	Home Tests	Away Tests	Total
Wins	8	4	12
Losses	10	9	19
Win %	80%	44%	63%

 

South Africa in Tests since Indian tour of SA in 2010-11
	Home Tests	Away Tests	Overall
Wins	9	0	9
Losses	13	11	24
Win %	69%	0%	38%

Batting and Bowling woes in overseas tours

In their 8 test matches played in England and Australia in the last couple of years, India had registered a score of 300 and 400 only once each. The aggregate of both the innings’ totals of a match did not touch 500 runs in 5 of those occasions. 

Experts tend to focus only on the bowling weaknesses and the batting failures are often not remembered beyond the subsequent home series.

While the batting composition has taken a completely different shade in the last few months what with a couple of legends retiring and the opening pair of Sehwag-Gambhir finally being overlooked for their long-running dismal form, the inexperienced line-up will be seriously tested against some hostile bowling in the form of Steyn’s pace, Morkel’s bounce and Philander’s swing.

Not that the criticism directed at the bowling department has been undeserving. India’s bowling averages for the England and Australia series have been at a not so impressive 59.8 and 51.6 runs respectively. Forget a series win, as it happened, even a draw would seem a far-fetched dream with such performances.

If we really want to be counted seriously in test matches abroad, much needs to be looked at and pondered over on both the batting and bowling armoury.

Sachin Tendulkar and the middle order

The question mark on Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement remains – is he or is he not is a sword perpetually hanging over the fans and selectors alike by the looks of it.

Sachin, if selected, could be for the larger reason of playing the role of a mentor than merely that of a batsman, in this batting line-up so low on match experience.

The emotional side almost never wants him to do the sunset walk but his recent form suggests that even his stoic fans would not want the master batsman to linger on this way beyond his hay-days.

We are probably already behind schedule in allowing the younger lot of Ajinkya Rahane and the new avatar of Suresh Raina to get some opportunities to display their mettle (more opportunities in Raina's case), face some chin music  and try to stamp their place in the line-ups for the future.

All-rounders

While he’s just a series old, this responsibility already seems to be comfortably resting on Ravindra Jadeja’s shoulders at the moment. But in overseas conditions, am still tempted to look for a pace-bowling all-rounder.  Jadeja is still largely untested as a batsman at the test level too.

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has indicated he’s willing to throw in his hat to be considered as one but again, a sum total of 4 innings to show as experience should hardly suffice to settle the butterflies in the management’s tummies.

It’s been 5 years since Irfan Pathan played his last match and he’s just about returned to competitive cricket in the domestic T20 tournament Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after an injury lay-off. It might be a bit of a stretch to include him in the squad but one does entertain thoughts of him returning to his past glory.

South Africa though, has some riches to flaunt around in this area starting with the evergreen Jacques Kallis who only seems to get better with age. Robin Peterson has proved to be a more than useful lower order bat and A B de Villiers in his role as a wicket-keeper batsman supports his stature in the team with a much higher career batting average than a lot of his counterparts around the world.

Pace Battery

Our pace battery looks extremely weak to take advantage of the seaming and bouncing conditions in South Africa.

Zaheer Khan is said to have started practice at the RCB nets for the upcoming IPL but his injury-prone nature will not leave the selectors depending on him to spearhead the attack.

Ishant Sharma in the last 5 series that he has played averages 58, 67, 90, 42 and 38, a disappointing progress to a career that had much to promise post the Ricky Ponting dismissals in Perth in 2007-08.

Munaf Patel has not been considered for a Test match since the 2011 tour of the West Indies. He is another victim of injuries and had started bowling recently in the domestic tournaments and made some useful contributions in the Deodhar Trophy. His accuracy in line and length could be useful but assessment of his fitness levels will dictate his consideration.

Umesh Yadav has been one of the rare reasons to cheer in the pace bowling area of late for India. While his pace, body structure and the amount of cricket that is being played would demand that he is handled delicately, let’s not expect common sense to prevail. The stakes that float around IPL and sometimes the insensitive manner in which the board has handled the players has meant that we might have to live with an injury prone Umesh for longer.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has just 1 series to show against his name so far but some of his contributions and his ability to swing the ball both ways mean that he would be a sure pick for South Africa.

Ashok Dinda and Praveen Kumar and a couple of top Ranji performers like Ishwar Pandey and Siddharth Kaul are the other players who are likely to be discussed for selection.

Sandeep Patil and his company of selectors have brought in a breath of fresh air, sending out some stern messages to the players so far irrespective of their seniority. Let us hope the wind continues to blow in the right direction ahead of the November tour.