Fast-Forwarded To Greatness Too Soon? It’s Time To Reevaluate Young Cricketers

It’s wise to be philosophical at times. It soothes the pain in the soul and provides you a respite from trying to make sense of matters beyond comprehension. Team India’s performance in Australia is one such matter. No explanation captures its shoddy show in full. The team oozing confidence and chutzpah from all pores not many months ago is suddenly full of vulnerabilities. It looks fragile like never before.

The series is level at this point and even if India lose the Brisbane Test, they can still stage a fight back to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy. They have done it earlier. But this time the team doesn’t inspire that belief in the fans. Something is missing in a big way. The same players have conquered the best in the world. Batters have performed brilliantly against the same set of Australian bowlers on several occasions. So there should be no doubt about their ability. Perhaps it’s the spirit that is missing.

Or perhaps it’s the cycle of life. What goes up must come down. Sunshine gives way to darkness. Flowers bloom and wilt. A nasty phase follows a happy one. A desert was once a garden full of greenery and this will change. India won so many matches, so it’s in the logic of the life cycle that the team has entered the bad phase. Someday it will be back to normal again. Batsmen will score the runs, bowlers will have a rich haul of wickets, the opposition will be in awe of the sheer weight of talent and fans will always be in the celebration mode.

A collective failure. That is how we must view it. A collective failure is more than a combination of individual failures, just like team wins are more than a sum of individual performances. So singling out one player or the other for blame in the Australian series is pointless. Virat Kohli has been a disaster alright, and Rohit Sharma too, but what about the youngsters we fast-forwarded into greatness? Yashasvi Jaiswal was brilliant in one match, Rishabh Pant has not been his usual self and Shubman Gill is patchy.

The big issue with the younger players is consistency. The routine of one good inning followed by a few mediocre ones doesn’t help the team much. Whatever happened to the concept of form? A batsman in form usually stays successful for a longer period and serves as the anchor for the entire batting order. Travis Head in the Australian side is an example. He is in good touch and can stabilise the inning when the top order collapses. During earlier tours, batters such as Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have done it for India.

The younger lot may be entertaining cricketers with impressive skills at stroke-making but the ability to carry good touch from one Test to the other is something they have to master. It’s a matter of temperament more than talent. Temperament is about mental discipline. At some point they must develop it. Team India’s transition to the next generation would be incomplete without serious attention to this aspect.

The Brisbane Test is not over yet, and India can still stage a comeback. But the fan spirit is damp and low with expectation. Time for them to turn to philosophy for solace.

(By arrangements with Perspective Bytes)