India prepare for a serious Test with a pyjama paty

India prepare for a serious Test with a pyjama paty
S Santhanam

New Delhi, February 17: If the Challenger one-day tournament at Chennai was intended to prepare the Indian team for the all-important Test series against Australia then it certainly hasn’t served the purpose. The four-day batting junket at the MA Chidambaram Stadium belter must have shattered the confidence of bowlers and given the batsmen a false sense of security.

If the selectors take the performances at this shorter-version event as the benchmark to pick the team for the Tests series against Australia then it would be unfair to the aspiring candidates.

The worst affected party at the Chennai batting paradise were the spinners, who will be our trump cards during the series. A brief look at their figures show that it was an outing they all will like to forget pretty fast.

The tournament figures of the leading spinners can give the idea of the nightmare they would have had. Sunil Joshi - 7 overs, 48 runs, 0 wickets; Nikhil Chopra - 20 overs, 114 runs, 0 wickets; Aashish Kapoor - 8 overs, 53 runs, 0 wickets; Rahul Sanghvi 20 overs, 93 runs, 2 wickets. And poor Balaji Rao, said to be the new hope of Indian cricket, had figures of 15 overs, 99 runs and one wicket.

There wasn’t much for the pacers too. Srinath had the figures of 2/50 and 1/63 in the two games he played. Zaheer Khan conceded 63 runs without success against India A in the final and 3 for 28 in the earlier game against the same opposition. In comparison, Agargar was more successful, with figures of 2 for 54 and 3 for 47.

For all batsmen, it was an easy outing as they scored heavily. But somehow it doesn’t seem to be the right warm-up for a Test series against a side with highly competent bowling attack. Saurav Ganguly had a big knock of 142 while Rahul Dravid (India A) helped himself to big scores (88 and 92). In comparison, Sachin Tendulkar (India B) was less successful, with 77 against India Seniors being his highest. The man of the tournament Hemang Badani (104 not out, 64 not out and 70), Dinesh Mongia (83 and 102), Jacob Martin (61, 32, 30 not out) and Virender Sehwag (94) also came up with some big scores.

Former Test cricketer Yashpal Sharma questioned the wisdom of conducting a one-day tournament on a flat pitch just prior to the Test series. ‘‘This is no way to plan for a tough series against the Australians. If we had to conduct the tournament at all, there should have been some life in the wickets to help the medium pacers. I am sure most of the bowlers, especially the spinners, would have suffered a dent in their confidence,’’ he said.

Yashpal thought the Challenger Series was not the right platform for aspirants to show their skills. ‘‘We play three Test matches against the Australians first before the five one-dayers. Therefore, it would have been ideal if we had a tournament of a longer version before the series,’’ the former India middle-order batsman felt.Bishan Bedi, too, was not convinced about the Challenger Series. ‘‘It defies logic and is not fair to the bowlers. Are the selectors going to pick the team on the performance of batsmen? Over 700 runs in a day was a joke,’’ he said.

‘‘The Board has always been doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Now to select the Test side they will go by performance in one-dayers and vice-versa. Who are they trying to fool?’’ he asked.

If the Board was so keen to complete the formality of conducting the tournament, it could have done later. And disturbing a preparatory camp for a ‘festival’ tournament is surely not done. Any way, it has hardly served its purpose, other than helping the batsmen to score heavily. That in any case they do in any domestic tournament.