CLOSE-IN: The time is ripe to groom young Indian Test side (IANS Column)

The competition brewing between cricket players for a place in the Indian Test side is very good for Indian cricket. However, to groom the young talent and make them quickly and forcefully effective is the key to success. Especially, with the World Test Championship final looming on the horizon next year.

Young daring cricketers are emerging from all corners of India, each one being confident and skillful enough to make their mark. One may seem to see harmony amongst them when they are on the field representing India, however, there is definitely no love lost when so many of them are vying for the only 11 spots to fill.

In boxing terms, a street fighter is one who has not honed his skills through systematic training but on the notorious streets. The Indian cricket stars of the recent past and the ones emerging have tales of rising to the top from unchartered places as well. These are the cricketers who from street fighters have become “Prize fighters” those who seem to revel when reaching their goal.

Jaspreet Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Hardik Pandya, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj and even the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni, are a few examples of them. They all have one strong trait and characteristic and that is to swim and survive through any turbulence that they face.

The present Indian cricket seems to breed so many of them and selecting an Indian side in any of the formats has become a very taxing task for the selectors.

The historical problem that Indian cricket has faced over all these years has been the failure to take a forceful decision on the selection of players of the national side. The safe and secure option has normally the one that has been opted for. This has been taken to ensure and secure one against possible brickbats or criticism. The present selectors need to break this syndrome.

Cricket in India has become a profession and for one to make it to playing internationally for the country requires a lot of sweat, hard work and a singular focus to achieve one’s goal.

For players, after going through the hard yards and having done well, one is, therefore , perplexed as to why young talented Indian cricketers should be benched once senior players return. The 3 Indian debutants who came through with flying colors against England in the last Test series, are most likely to be benched against Bangladesh.

The trio of Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel will make way for K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. One can understand the inclusion of Jadeja as an extra spinner in Indian conditions, however, for the young brood to be replaced by their more established colleagues is not fair. A prime example of this was Karun Nair, who after scoring a triple hundred, a rare feat in Test cricket, was dropped in the very next match. Cricket, like most things in life, is played as much mentally, as on the field. It needs a positive flow of confidence to consistently do well and if that thread is broken, weaving it back can become difficult. Unfortunately, Karun Nair, could not do so and failed to live up to his earlier success upon his return.

Both K.L. Rahul and Rishabh Pant have done great service and played some magnificent cricket in the past, however, a series against Bangladesh is an ideal platform to nurse the next in line, especially, players who have shown to be ready to play amongst the big boys.

This takes one back to the making of Mumbai players. They were and are renowned for having, as one popularly called it, a “Khadoos” attitude. Although, in normal terms it means grumpy and unfriendly, the Mumbai players see it as a sole focus of never giving up or giving an inch or losing heart.

That is precisely why Mumbai and Bombay earlier have had such a distinguished list of Indian Test batters. Presently, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane and the newest being Sarfaraz Khan have kept the baton going.

The Mumbai attitude has gradually filtered into players from other parts of India as well. One can see the focus and the determination in the eyes of an Indian player making ones debut and Test cricket is the only true platform where this becomes most relevant. In the limited overs, due to the overs restriction, one can be forgiven for playing a false shot, whereas, in Test cricket it is not so.

The performance in domestic cricket is always talked about as being the stepping stone to the next level of playing for the country. Sarfaraz, Padikkal and Jurel have done so and have also performed well for India. One can understand their disappointment on being side-stepped, especially, to play against Bangladesh, a side against whom they may have been able to seal their place in the Indian side for good.

Sarfaraz, one knows, has the khadoos attitude and his brother Musheer Khan looks to be just a step behind.

Indian cricket, to keep flourishing in the future, needs to keep bringing in these youngsters into the side or else we may have a cupboard full of talent all gone to waste.

(Yajurvindra Singh is a former India cricketer. The views expressed are personal).

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