Not very long ago, the coach of the Indian cricket team Ravi Shastri had claimed that the present Indian side was the all-time best. However, the performance of the Indian cricketers in New Zealand shows the hollowness of his claim. On a pitch, where the ball tends to move, the Indian batsmen appeared as novices against the Kiwi bowlers. Such was the dominance of the New Zealand bowlers over Indian batsmen that in four innings the team never managed to score over 200 runs. Big names like Virat Kohli, Cheteswar Pujara, and Ajinka Rahane not only failed before the bowlers, but also repeated the same mistakes. In all the innings, Indian captain Virat Kohli got out to incoming balls and throughout the series he couldn’t rectify this flaw in his batting. Like the senior batsmen, juniors like Mayank Agarwal, and Prithivi Shaw also failed to perform. Indian batting was so pathetic that in the second test when bowlers brought India back to a strong position, the batsmen surrendered it by irresponsible batting. The series has clearly proved that this Indian team is just another team and to be the best it will have to walk a thousand miles.
It is not dearth of talent, but faulty selections which is the cause for the poor show of India. Remember, in the previous world cup, the Indian batting line-up had no proper number four with the selectors neglecting Ambati Rayadu, and included Vijay Shankar in the squad. The same happened in the New Zealand tour also. India’s regular opener Rohit Sharma got injured and was ruled out of the series midway. But for reasons best known to the selectors and team management, KL Rahul, who was performing well in the tour, was overlooked. So we had only limited choices for the opening slots. As a matter of fact in Indian teams, those who have managed to establish themselves once are assured to be in the squad even in spite of poor form. Take the case of Ajinka Rahane. Perhaps he is the most technically sound batsman of the Indian team. But the runs he had scored in the middle do not stand as a testimony to this fact. He scores runs only after vast gaps. Even former cricketers like Sandeep Patil raised questions over his selection. But, we know that Rahane will be in the team despite all criticisms. Another factor which ails Indian cricket is the fact that these days even players for the Test team are being picked on their performance in limited over cricket, especially in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But Test cricket is a different format altogether. To win a test match, a team has to bowl out the opponents twice. The batsmen have to bat for nearly 150 overs. Earlier, players for Test teams used to be picked from Ranji Trophy matches. But it has been years since the practice has been dropped. Now performances in the Ranji Trophy do not find a mention in selector’s notebook. This is why those who have played well in this year’s Ranji Trophy will have to wait for national duty till they excel in the IPL. It has to be stopped immediately. The selectors have to realise that shorter format specialists cannot excel in Test cricket. If India really wants to have a strong enough Test team, it should have to depend on the quality of a player, not on his hitting ability. Otherwise, in all matches outside the subcontinent, the Indian cricket team will continue to perform poorly.