AMRIT MATHUR HUR
The selectors surprised everyone by announcing an all-inclusive jumbo team for Australia. An 18-member Test squad is unprecedented but there is a reason for Murali Vijay to return, Parthiv Patel to get one more go and Rohit Sharma to receive a wild card.
A fact check indicates Indian top Test players have underperformed and their careers resemble a car in reverse gear, hurtling rapidly downhill. Not sure who to trust to succeed in Australia — and confronted by collective decline — the selectors played safe and handed out boarding cards to whoever they could spot!
Virat Kohli dominates world cricket like no other — he is both Viv Richards and Sachin Tendulkar, ruthless domination combined with relentless hunger for runs. Unlike his colleagues, Kohli’s career is only going up. Kohli is an automatic choice but the indifferent form of others makes their selection subject to discussion.
Ajinkya Rahane, the Test vicecaptain, owned a wonderful away record and his calm presence was crucial for stability in the middleorder. But he was benched in South Africa and after England, where he was sadly tentative, the 52-Test veteran faces awkward questions: Has he lost confidence, or is it a deeper technical issue?
Cheteshwar Pujara is another whose stock has eroded, he is not anymore the solid No 3 who could bat all day. Dropped in England, Pujara too is going through a mini career crisis after 64 Tests, almost 5,000 runs and 15 hundreds .
More worrying is the recent career trajectory of various India openers. Murali Vijay, usually so dependable (59 Tests, 4,000 runs, 12 tons) was undone by the swinging ball in England. Discarded and dumped after two Tests , chief selector MSK Prasad has now thrown him a lifeline. His partner Shikhar Dhawan is not so lucky and it seems his red-ball career has hit a massive roadblock.
Unlike Shikhar, Rohit, the white ball champion with 21 cen- turies, has earned a Test recall. Rohit was dropped after the first two Tests in South Africa and not played Ranji or Duleep in 2018. Yet, given the uncertain form of others, he could open in the first Test at Adelaide (December 6-10).
Why KL Rahul remains inconsistent and fails to nail a permanent place in Tests is a mystery. No less baffling is the confusion surrounding Karun Nair, who despite a Test triple ton, is out of the frame. He sat out in England and disappeared after that.
Like batsmen, top Test bowlers
SYDNEY: The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) called on Tuesday for the immediate lifting of lengthy bans imposed on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft after the release of a scathing report into the culture of Australian cricket.
Among the findings, the review released on Monday said that to view the ball-tampering scandal which led to the bans as “the failure of a handful of players” would be a mistake.
Smith and Warner are seven months into one-year bans, while Bancroft will be eligible to return in December after his suspension for attempting to tamper with the ball during a test against South Africa in Cape Town in March.
Greg Dyer, the head of the Australian players’ union, said all three players had been punished enough.
“Given there is now independent verification that CA’S system and culture were contributory factors, the ACA calls for the lifting of the board-imposed penalties on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft,” ACA chief Dyer told a news conference in Melbourne.
‘LOST A LOT’
“The players have already lost time in the game, lost chances to play for Australia, endured public humiliation and faced massive financial penalties.
“My message to Cricket Australia is this: these contrite men have suffered enough. Let them play.”
Cricket Australia (CA) Chairman David Peever, in his reaction to the review on Monday, made it clear that the board had handed out the sanctions after “full and thoughtful process” and that they would remain in place.
Former Australia coach Darren Lehmann, who stood down in the wake of the scandal, also joined calls to have the bans set aside and allow the trio to return to state and international cricket.
“I think they should be back but it’s up to the board to make that decision, not me,” Lehmann told the Sydney Morning Herald.