India v New Zealand - A Chest Thumping Opportunity

There is fury being unleashed on the poor selectors; specifically in the handling of VVS Laxman.

There is no defending India’s selection process but in that process the selectors are mere order takers, so to blame them for not trying anything bold is like blaming the waiter for an ill-prepared meal.

After accounting for star-whims, backed by multi-million dollar endorsements, BCCI gag orders that prevents them from presenting their vision for selection and thoughts for specific picks, these poor chaps are routinely second guessed. Indeed some of their picks, on the surface, are bewildering

Take Rohit Sharma.

He was on the Test team to Australia where he got no game and he is dropped because he had poor returns from ODIs but is part of the T20 team for the World Cup. This is one selection/de-selection that is wrong 3 times over.

But what has left me perplexed is why Saurav Ganguly and many fans are upset with the selectors for “the way VVS Laxman was treated”.

In 8 away Test Matches he averaged 20 odd. He is 37. If he was unwilling to go and the selectors indeed played a role in prodding him into retirement because they would rather invest in a younger batsman, what is so upsetting about it?

How many Test Matches do past glories buy? I think 8 are too many.

I can understand VVS Laxman and Ganguly being emotional and even hurt about it, but theirs is not exactly an objective view.

Meanwhile…

The New Zealanders are in town for 2 Tests and 2 T20s with no warm up games; unless some believe that the 2 Tests are the warm ups for the T20s. India is by all accounts a tough place to win for visiting teams. New Zealand has won all of 1 Test in India in the last 40 years. That Test is also the only Test match I watched between the 2 sides at the Wankhede Stadium in 1988. I was there to watch Richard Hadlee and he delivered with 10 wickets. But it was John Bracewell who clean bowled Dilip Vengsarkar for a 6 ball duck that settled the Test Match with India chasing 275+.

New Zealand was just beaten by a resurgent West Indies side. It's hard to tell if West Indies got better or if New Zealand just weren't trying hard. Sunil Narine and Doenarine spun a web around them and Best and Roach didn't let up. New Zealand's bowling too is weakened minus Vettori. Given the evidence picking Chawla is a gift for New Zealand but we should expect our batting bullies to pile up the runs and win using the time tested 90s formula. Pile up 400-500 first innings runs and unleash the spinners on the hapless foreigners.

It seems neither New Zealand is keen to give itself the best chance of competing nor is India interested ensuring a more meaningful tour. Why else would you not give this series enough time to allow New Zealand a full tour with warm up games and 3 Tests?

The BCCI has been applauded for their ‘A’ tours programs but what’s the point in sending youngsters to play other youngsters when they could have played a full fledged visiting national side at home in warm up games. It serves multiple purposes and makes for a more meaningful series. But of course the astute business men have worked out that there is no business case for warm up games.

This is a series, no one really cares about and I am sick of being thrown business talk in rationalizing the irrational behavior of all cricket boards.

Give us a proper Test series, or none at all. A series like this is what classifies as paying ‘lip service’ to Test Cricket. May be the way to preserve the format is to play less of it but play it in all earnestness.

The tests are being played at Hyderabad and Bangalore. Hyderabad isn't a top test venue and it's hard to see people show up. But rank turners should be expected at both venues though it's still the end of monsoon and there may be some rain yet. This may help the Kiwis but still it's a long shot that they would get 20 Indian wickets on turners.

As much as I want New Zealand to spring a surprise, I am not sure how it is going to happen. Like the last time around, New Zealand may win a session or two, may be a day or two over the 2 tests, but it won’t be enough for the efforts to count for wins.

The Series though is a huge one for the humiliated batting line up. When India were busy being ‘unlucky’ in England and Australia, many technically exposed stars were verbalizing the “wait till we meet you on our territory” instinct and I am sure they were aching for this series to start, so they can thump their chests again.

This series will only confirm the stereotype for India. Bullies at home and cry babies outside. For a brief period, I was genuinely smitten by India’s batting greats but ultimately the results over the last 50 years of Indian cricket don’t add up to anything really great about this set of batting stars beyond just better personal numbers.

That too… largely due to more cricket against more weak teams