No rush in transition of middle order: Kohli
KOLKATA: For all the conjectures that come in sync with the highs and lows of one’s career, it’s impossible to really predict when the time has come for someone to make way for the young and new.
Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman scored hundreds apiece at Eden Gardens in November 2011, before playing their last Test in three months’ time. But the realisation and subsequent announcements of retirement came much later.
Exactly 10 years since one of the best middle-orders of the game broke up, India are again staring at the possibility of ushering in the next generation in that space.
Yet, it’s all up in the air. Shreyas Iyer is simmering in uncertainty despite scoring a hundred and a fifty on debut; Hanuma Vihari—who has won and saved India quite a few Tests abroad—keeps playing and getting dropped.
Cheteshwar Pujara hasn’t scored a century since January 2019. Ajinkya Rahane not since the last Boxing Day Test at MCG. If they were living on borrowed time, they just extended the lease with their 111-run partnership in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test.
Will there be a transition? Won’t there be a transition?
“Well, I obviously can’t pinpoint when we will have a talk on transition,” said Virat Kohli in Monday’s media interaction ahead of the third Test in Cape Town.
“The game itself pans out in a way that transitions happen and they happen naturally. Conversations can’t be forced around it.” Perhaps Kohli is adhering to the time-honoured tradition of a cricketer either being worn down by a string of paltry scores or quitting while staying ahead of his game.
Key contributions
The string of paltry scores have been trailing Pujara and Rahane for some time now, except that every once in a while, often in astounding circumstances, they play out of their skins.
That crucial stand in Johannesburg, the Melbourne century, the Gabba standoff, the 100-run partnership in the Lord’s win.
2018-19, with Pujara at his peak scoring 521 runs, including three centuries to set up India’s first Test series win in Australia is too far back in terms of sporting performances.
But the Gabba win last January, where Pujara absorbed all the pain inflicted by Australia’s fast bowlers in a 211-ball 56 to set up one of the greatest Test wins ever for India, is recent testimony to his importance to the team.
As is the second-innings 91 on a green Headingley pitch in 2021, easily India’s most ironclad resistance in a forgettable innings defeat.
61 at Oval, 47 in Mumbai and 53 at Wanderers–these aren’t rank bad scores.
Rahane’s numbers after that match-winning hundred at MCG are less impressive, but 49 in Southampton, 61 at Lord’s, 48 at Centurion and 58 at Wanderers once again highlight how a few more runs here and there could have easily stemmed the conversation about transition.
“If you look at the last Test, the way Jinx (Ajinkya) and Pujara batted, in the second innings, that experience is obviously priceless for us, especially in a series like this where we know that these guys have done the job in the past,” said Kohli.
“These guys have performed in Australia the last time we were there. In the last Test, they played crucial knocks in crucial situations and that has a lot of value.”
Yet, it’s also true that South Africa have been quite successfully implementing an inswing plan against Pujara’s front foot, while Rahane has been caught off-guard by his bouts of poor shot selections.
Change in the current circumstances isn’t as impending as it was back in 2012 when Dravid was 39 and Laxman just over 37.
Pujara and Kohli were already playing Tests for more than a year then and with Suresh Raina also pitching in with a string of fifties, transition made every bit of sense. Dravid and Laxman understood that and moved on before being asked to.
And right now, Kohli, who has not scored a century in two years, also knows what it feels like to be in the shoes of his middle-order mates.
“When the transition happens, everyone knows which direction the team is going,” the captain said.
“That’s a very natural progression and I think we should leave transition to unfold itself and not necessarily force individuals into tricky or difficult situations.”