Team for Tests against South Africa

Heady as the win in the CB Series might have been, it is still Test matches that matter for me. And India’s Test team looks fairly predictable for the most part. The only question marks concern some of the injuries, with Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh all likely out of the running. There is no question we will miss Zak and Ishant. Yuvi’s injury is largely irrelevant, since there was little chance of him making the playing 11 unless someone was injured. And I am glad for Bhajji’s enforced absence. However staunchly I might have supported him over the likes of Hayden and Symonds, the fact remains that his bowling, in Test matches in particular, remained resolutely ordinary. Yet for some reason our selectors have a Bhajji fetish, so had he been fit chances are he would have retained with no regard for performance. So Bhajji’s injury could be a blessing in disguise. We desperately need to build strength in the spin department in anticipation of Kumble’s retirement, and looking beyond Bhajji is crucial in order to do so.

There are few questions about the batting order, with Sehwag, Laxman, Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly all selecting themselves. The only point to make – which I reiterate tirelessly virtually every time I blog – is that Laxman should be batting at 3, with Dravid pushed down to 5. That is unlikely to happen, since batting order seems to be decided by hierarchy in the Indian team; but my interest is in what should happen, not in predicting what will happen. There is also little doubt about Dhoni at 7. The Aussies asked some stern questions of his batting in the Tests, but he is now keeping as well as anyone in world cricket, and I think still remains a dangerous batsman, if not a fully matured one, in the longer form of the game.

So the only question of the batting really concerns Viru’s opening partner, and there are a number of candidates for that spot. There is Wasim Jaffer, who was shown up by Lee in Australia, but who has nonetheless come off a sensational year in 2007 against virtually everyone else. The man certainly has the technique to open, and a big problem for India in the past has been a lack of patience with promising opening batsmen. In the past decade, the likes of Akash Chopra, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Sanjay Bangar and S.S. Das were all discarded at the first sign of failure, which has hurt India’s search for a stable opening pair. When you consider how persistent selectors are with someone like Yuvraj – a persistence that has paid off more than not – the problems with such impatience are evident. Jaffer has been racking up the runs in domestic cricket since his return from Australia, and I think deserves to be persisted with.

With none of the middle order batsmen really in danger of losing their spots, there is a case for a back-up opener, and here the candidates are Dinesh Karthik, Akash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir is the weakest of the three technically, but has come off an excellent year in one-day cricket. His desire to take the step up to Tests is obvious, though he hasn’t made the most of the odd chance he has got. Chopra scores over Gambhir on most counts. He is technically the soundest of the three; has been in phenomenal domestic form this year; and brings solid technique to the top of the order. DK, meanwhile, was the unluckiest person to tour Australia, remarkably not getting a single game in either Tests or one-dayers. This is particularly unfair given that he was the highest scorer in Tests in England over the summer; so he has been basically dropped on the basis of two failures against Pakistan – precisely the impatience I have just mentioned. He is still a terrific player to have on the bench, and an immense long-term prospect. Viru justified his selection ahead of DK in the last couple of Tests in Australia, but DK is still a good enough player to necessarily remain in the picture.

So for me, the back-up batting spot is really a direct toss-up between Chopra and DK, with very little to choose between the two. I think that in specialist terms Chopra is the better batsman; but DK brings enormous flexibility to the team, as he will serve not just as a back-up batsman but also as a back-up keeper; and indeed, he is someone who can bat in the middle order in case of injury to one of the big guns. There’s not much in it for me, but my gut call would be to retain DK in the 14.

In the bowling, it makes sense to play two spinners in the 11 against the Proteas, who are known to be vulnerable against spin. The obvious man to partner Kumble in the absence of Bhajji (and in my mind, also in the presence of Bhajji) is Murali Kartik, and the selectors had no business replacing him with Piyush Chawla in the CB Series squad. Chawla bowled well enough and with spunk, but bowling 10 tight overs in one-dayers doesn’t automatically turn you into a Test bowler, and I think there’s still a lot of work that needs to happen before Chawla becomes a Test bowler. Kartik is a no-brainer for me, and hopefully he will make the most of his opportunity. Of course, the last two times he has been a part of the India set-up he has been dropped after man of the match performances against Australia; so maybe he would be better off following Bhajji’s example and failing if he wants to be retained over the long-term.

In the absence of Zak and Ishant, R.P. Singh returns to lead the seam attack, and there’s little doubt that Irfan Pathan should be his partner. I think there’s nothing wrong with two left-arm seamers opening the bowling, and Pathan needs to be retained after his man of the match performance at Perth. He will lend essential depth to the batting at 8, especially given that South Africa arguably has a more potent bowling attack than the Aussies. Sreesanth is the major contender for his spot, and while Sree will lend variety to the attack, he just hasn’t performed with enough consistency over the past year to be risked as one of two frontline seamers. I would definitely keep Sree in the picture in the 14, given his record against South Africa, but Irfan scores out in the playing 11.

That just leaves one reserve spot in the 14, and I’d like to put another spinner in the picture. There just isn’t a good enough off-spinner in India to take that spot. Ramesh Powar is the only other offie in India who is international class, but his form has been so poor that he was even dropped from the West Zone side during the Duleep Trophy. I frankly think there is no need for an off-spinner, and indeed there are two leg-spinners who are good to consider for that last spot, especially given that one of them needs to be groomed as Kumble’s long-term successor. Chawla is obviously one, but the second is Haryana’s Amit Mishra. I would pick Mishra. He has always been immensely talented since his under-19 days, but he was first picked for India when he was still raw, in 2002 when the West Indies toured. He didn’t get a Test in that series, was promptly dropped and, as is often the case in India, forgotten. But he has been a silent and consistent performer in domestic cricket through the years, and has been in outstanding form this year. (He also had South Africa A in knots when they toured earlier in the season). He is a big spinner of the ball, a useful lower-order batsman and a fine fielder. He now has a maturity that he didn’t when first picked, and greater experience than Chawla. Still only 25, he remains a fine long-term prospect for India. South Africa is as good a team as any against which to give a young leggie his first chance, and I think the time has come to give Amit Mishra a look in.

My team for the Tests against South Africa, then:

Playing 11:

Wasim Jaffer
Virendra Sehwag
V.V.S. Laxman
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Sourav Ganguly
Mahendra Dhoni (V) (W)
Irfan Pathan
Anil Kumble ©
Murali Kartik
R.P. Singh

Reserves:

Dinesh Karthik (W)
S. Sreesanth
Amit Mishra

This gives the team a nice balance, with a Test centurion coming in at 9; two quality swing bowlers; and a balanced spin attack that consists of a champion leg-spinner, a quality left-arm spinner and a more than useful off-break support bowler in Viru. Karthik, Sreesanth and Mishra constitute a talented and forward-looking bench. Chopra is the one person who is hard done by in this team, but that is an indication of the fierce and healthy competition that now exists for India Test spots.