The first morning of a Test match,cloudy overhead and a responsive pitch underneath the Oval might have been the perfect setting for a captain planning a hostile reception for rival openers. But with out-of-shape,rusty RP Singh opening Indias bowling attack,it seemed MS Dhoni was waiting for Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook with a hospitable welcome drink. On the eve of the final Test,India,0-3 down,had seemed keen to avoid a series whitewash. But the first session of play today showed there were no U-turns on this tour. In fact,it was all downhill. RP was a downer,part-time spinner Suresh Raina bowled long hops,Dhoni fumbled repeatedly,Sreesanth continued to be ineffective,and India looked like a side asking to be defeated and be put out of their misery. At lunch,when heavy rain brought play to an end for the day,England were 75 for no loss,and a joke already doing the rounds was about when they would declare their innings. RP was the perfect picture of all that has gone wrong for India on this tour. His presence in the tour party has exposed Indias bench strength,and his presence in the playing XI,ahead of the regular squad member Munaf Patel,has put a question mark on the team managements judgement. Giving RP the new ball was just another one of Dhonis many puzzling decisions of the tour. It took only one ball to lay bare Indias hopelessness. RP began with one way down the leg side,which reached Dhonis gloves after bouncing a couple of times. RP,who hasnt played a Test since mid-2008,and whose last first class game was eight months ago,improved somewhat with his third ball down the same line,but this time only one-bounce to the keeper. The packed stands,a field full of the games greats,and two of the worlds best openers at the crease made RP,with his friendly pace and amateurish indiscipline,look totally out of place in the international arena. When TV showed a few of his wickets from the 2007 series,it was apparent just how much things had changed. The pace and swing are all but gone,the waistline is embarrassingly wider,and there is enough flesh on his face to make a double chin appear imminent. I was playing Test cricket after almost three years,so I started off by bowling here and there. It happens sometimes. I only came to know that I was playing the match this morning after the warm-ups when Praveen was not declared fit, said the bowler at the post-match press conference. With the IPL providing him his last match practice,RP wasnt indeed ready for the Test call-up. While the Indian team was in the West Indies,the UP bowler spent time in Delhi and Bangalore. Those in the know said the rain in the capital kept him off the field,and he was in Bangalore for injury rehab. His friends say he had lost all hope of making it to the side,especially after another left-arm pacer,Jaydev Unadkat,was picked for the South Africa tour last year. Tongues have started to wag about RPs proximity to the skipper he was one of the few who attended Dhonis wedding and there are suggestions that Dhoni pulled his weight to get his mate in. But the national selectors need to answer some questions as well. Naming an underprepared player,that too a pacer,in the squad defies logic. Quicks like Varun Aaron,Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar,who were match-fit and among wickets in the recent tournament for emerging players in Australia,would have been better options. The series had been lost well before RPs embarrassing first ball. But as Dhoni caught the ball after two bounces,the fading reputation of the erstwhile World No.1 team got wiped off.
