Indian Cricket: Beginning of the END or End of a Beginning

Post the retirement of Dravid and Laxman, two of the most reliable
players, does Indian team have enough to compete at the highest level?

ince long, India had been used to seeing the well renowned batting line-up, the players that
we fittingly call The Fantastic Four. With Sourav Ganguly already retired a couple of years
ago, it was reduced to The Terrific Three with many a players trying to fill in Gangulys
shoes; none successfully successful so far! With this spot not filled up satisfactorily, we have more
positions vacant in our team and that too of two of the most reputed, talented and reliable
performers for Indian cricket for well over a decade. Rahul Dravid, arguably the best test batsman
of modern times with an impeccable technique and never wandering concentration, announced his
retirement after two awfully miserable tours for Team India losing 0-8 to England and Australia
combined. Was it Rahuls underperformance that led India down? Not a bit. He was one of the most
consistent batsmen on the tour, fighting it out like a lone warrior on most occasions in England.
More so, his performances was that impressive that he
was asked to open batting for India in T20 games
against England and he did not disappoint there too,
scoring at a prolific rate and getting India off to good
starts more often than not, as Ravi Shastri would put
it! But, owing to the poor performance, someone had
to retire. Thats the usual response of a side after such
bad team performances. So this time, the axe fell on
The Great Wall of India, our Mr. Dependable Rahul
Dravid. And he was dependable for this as well, calmly choosing to retire from the international
cricket.

Almost six months later, without a test match being played during the period and just prior to the
test series against New Zealand at home, the other pillar of Indian
middle order, the classy and wristy, Very Very Special Laxman
announces that he would retire from international cricket! Well, all
had expected that he would not carry for long but his retirement
coming before playing the home test at Hyderabad against New
Zealand was a surprise. Definitely the last year or so had not been so
fruitful for this legend but that gives no measure of his class and
abilities to pile on the runs and his temperament to bat India out of
troubles single handedly.
Now with only one left among the Fantastic Four of Indian batting
line up, the relieved master after finally managing to score only his
th
100 century after a year short gap, a lot was there to think upon for the team management and the
Captain Cool. One thing is for certain, it is not easy to fill in the voids that were now present in the
debatably The Best batting line up. Does this mean that it is the end of the era of Indian batting
supremacy? Many speculate yes it is. Many are still hopeful of the fresh crop of the batsmen that is
coming up. Still others are wary of the abilities of these upcoming kids to handle it out in the
middle when the leather would rush past the grills of their helmets. The question that remains to be
answered is is there a threat that India would not be able to improve on 0-8 performance?
Substituting the players of caliber of Dravid, Laxman is by no means a small challenge. These
players accounted for experience of close to 300 matches, scoring a whopping 22000 runs between
them, stitching numerous badly needed partnerships to pave India out of trouble almost every
second test abroad. Who can forget the Kolkata test of
2001 against Australia when we saw 281 from the bat
of Laxman and a 150+ score from Dravid to take India
past Australia, while following on, and achieve a highly
unlikely victory! This is just one of the many such
instances about brilliance of these two maestros. New
Zealand tour of 1999 where Rahul Dravid impressed
one and all with his technical excellence and patience is another such instance. We can just go on
counting and never get tired of remembering the great performances by these two.
However, in this post-RDVL era (we would call this era as RDVL as a tribute to Rahul Dravid & Vvs
Laxman), the most pessimistic of approaches can adversely impact our team and its reconstruction.
If we keep on thinking that this is end and no more geniuses would again be produced from land of
India, we would be doing no good to us and confidence of upcoming talent. True that the new crop
would have to go through multiple tests, fail, fall, rise and perform to establish themselves as
reliable players. All understand that it is not going to be easy that is just like stating the obvious.
The most optimistic of approaches would ask us to believe that we are the world champions in 50over format of the game. If a team can do in one form of the game then why not in the other format
with the same set of players, without an understanding of the fact that the two formats differ in
type of cricket required to be played. Clearly, both the extreme approaches would leave us in
middle of nowhere and have us wanting. So, taking a more hopeful outlook towards the situation
and analyzing what we have at hand, let us assess the future.

There are quite a few talented upcoming batsmen, who have rapidly move through the ranks and
made a place of their own. Some are still fighting it out to find a permanent spot in the side. Virat
Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma would be those who come to mind instantaneously for a spot in
the test team. Undoubtedly these supremely talented batsmen have proved their worth and mettle
in the limited overs format, especially Kohli and Raina with Rohit showing some inconsistency.
Virat Kohli is the fastest player to 13 ODI centuries in the world and Raina is the only Indian to have
scored a century in all the formats of the game. Rohit has been titled as Next Big Thing for the
Indian cricket after Sachin Tendulkar by many! However, when it comes to the longer format of the
game, when these players would be needed to showcase their technical soundness and mental
strength, there is a long way to go. Virat looks the most likely among these who has the capabilities
to bat it out in tough conditions but a few weaknesses that he needs to work upon are still there.
Raina, despite all his talent, has the tendency of getting a rush of blood far too often for anybodys
liking. Rohits form is as unpredictable as a womans mood. He can deliver it big in all forms but
currently lacks the long concentration spans that would enable him to convert talent into
performances.
Talking of some other finds of the Indian cricket, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane would top
the list to enter into the team. Cheteshwar is a very Dravid like player, though such a comparison
this early can be regarded as an overstatement. He has good temperament and technique along
with appetite for big runs. Having impressed in a few outings that he has managed to get, he has
shown promise to find a permanent place in the Indian test side in near future. He can only
improve from here says a leading newspaper article about him. But burdening him with
responsibility of replacing one of the greats would be asking too much from a young player, finding
his feet in the arena. Ajinkya, though hasnt been able to crack it into the playing eleven yet, but has
been in contention for quite some time now. And it shall not be
long before he gets a green signal. It will be on him, then, to He can only improve from here
replicate classy knocks played in domestic cricket at the
international level. The upcoming tour to South Africa would test - A leading newspaper on
Cheteshwar Pujara
the strength of character of these budding stars of tomorrow.
Seeing the situation from a neutral eye, the situation doesnt
look as bleak as is being portrayed by some. Yes, exit of stalwarts is a serious loss to India, but it
was inevitable and had to happen one day; like all good things dont last forever, so didnt their
careers. There are enough rising hopes and sooner than later we can hope to see India as the
supreme batting power in the world. True that there would not be another Dravid or Laxman or
Ganguly, but there certainly can be new faces to the Indian cricket taking it to newer higher claims.
After all, God of cricket also was once a youngster!