It is possibly a reflection of top-ranked India’s forward-looking approach that Karun Nair sits out of the one-off Test against Bangladesh that began in Hyderabad on Thursday despite becoming only the second Indian to score a Test triple hundred in the previous game.
Such a move by an Indian team management would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
The three-Test old Nair can take solace from the fact that he is not the first but the fourth international player to face such a situation after Englishmen Andrew Sandham and Len Hutton and Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Sandham, then 39 years of age, did not play for England again, while the other two would go on to finish among the greats of the game.
Nair had to make way for the experienced Ajinkya Rahane, who was returning from a finger injury that saw him miss the final two Tests against England. It was batting at Rahane’s No. 5 slot that the 25-year-old Nair slammed 303 not out in Chennai in the fifth and final England Test in December.
Rewarding consistency
The 28-year-old Rahane averages close to 48 in 32 Tests, with eight hundreds and nine fifties. In the Mumbaikar’s return to the No. 5 slot, it became amply clear that consistency is an aspect that would not be overlooked by this team management, and the side featured five specialist bowlers as has been the norm ever since Virat Kohli took over as skipper.
This is the second instance in the past month that consistency over a period of time has been given preference over recent performances, even if spectacular, following the Wriddhiman Saha-Parthiv Patel episode.
Patel turned out impressively with both bat and behind the stumps after replacing an injured Saha for the last three Tests against England and then led Gujarat to their first Ranji Trophy title beating powerhouse Mumbai in the final with a 90 and 143.
Despite Patel’s success, it was made amply clear by Kohli, coach Anil Kumble and chief selector MSK Prasad that Saha was the first choice given the consistency that the Bengal cricketer has displayed since succeeding MS Dhoni as wicketkeeper in Test cricket.
They, however, did not fail to recognise Patel’s contribution as stopgap, saying he would be the second wicketkeeper on overseas tours.
“People who have been regular in the XI need to be given a chance,” Kohli said in the pre-match press conference in Hyderabad. “If form or that kind of thing happens you are subject to that change, otherwise it’s important to back your top XI. You need to back players for a long time for them to become match-winners and have long careers,” he said.
“At the same time, you need to keep those youngsters within the squad and groom them. I think communication is a big thing on that front and we do that very well with the management, conveying to the players what they want,” Kohli added, referring to the importance of recognising both consistency and promise.
Importance to domestic cricket
Both Patel and Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund have spoken about the chief national selector being communicative.
“MSK [Prasad] had a conversation with me during the Ranji Trophy,” Mukund told the media after being recalled to the Test squad after a gap of five years. “He told me that I was on their radar. That is about as much as any selector will tell you. I will have to give credit to him because I don’t think any national selector has spoken to me before,” the left-handed opener added.
Mukund’s recall itself signifies the importance being given to domestic cricket. The Tamil Nadu captain scored 849 runs in 14 innings at an average of 65.30 while leading his state to the Ranji semi-finals and was chosen as third specialist opener for the Bangladesh Test ahead of Shikhar Dhawan.
It was possibly Mukund’s experience at the highest level that saw him pip Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal, who tallied 1,310 runs this Ranji season.
Clearly, the team management is looking to build a well-rounded Test squad that can win overseas, considering that India is to tour South Africa, England and Australia in 2017-’18 in what is being billed as the true test for the world No. 1 side.
There are grooming all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the hope that the talented Baroda cricketer will make the transition from overs-limit to Test cricket.
“We certainly want to keep Hardik in the mix,” Kumble told a pre-match news conference in Hyderabad. “He is someone who has the ability to become a good all-rounder even in the longer format. It’s rare that you have someone who can run in and bowl at close to 140 kph and bat in the middle order.
“He hasn’t been tested in the longer format. But we believe that if he is part of this mix. Whenever the opportunity comes, we will try him out. In the future, whenever we travel outside India, he will be someone we will probably look at.”
