The recent selection of the Indian team for the Sri Lanka tour has ignited a debate that whether the team comprising of full time batters and bowlers is the right composition. Clearly, the nation of cricketing freaks who worship the game and believe that they have all the right to analyze everything that comes their way need some rethinking to do. The axing of players such as Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja has left an all-rounder spot open, believe many people perhaps not properly knowing what the term all-rounder exactly stands for.
So who precisely is an all-rounder? Is he a batsman who can bowl and vice versa or the one who can rise up to the occasion both with the bat and ball. One who can be banked upon to consolidate and string in a partnership/pick up a wicket whenever his captain desires out of him or someone who we hope might work a wonder, provided the day is his. If the majority believes that the later is the answer to the myth then sadly, they need to go back and recalculate their cricketing brain. An all-rounder is not someone who can be left to chance. He is the faith of his team, his captain and the entire nation. And if the current Indian team is not having an all-rounder, there is simply no point of blowing things out of proportion unnecessarily.
These players are ‘potential’ all-rounders. They are those for whom the commentators use phrases such as “no mug with the bat” and “can chip away with a wicket or two”. These renowned names who have been excluded from the squad to Lanka, aren’t the ones to be categorized in the same elite panel such as Jacques Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Kapil Dev or Sir Garfield Sobers who have epitomized the all rounder postion.
When Irfan Pathan was being started to bat up the order (Jesus, he even opened the innings for India in a test against Sri Lanka in 2005), his bowling dropped. Obviously Greg Chappell didn’t only send Ganguly packing, but left no page unturned in trying to deliberately find an all-rounder in Pathan which we all know, eventually led to his downfall. What started as a fairy-tale for the then 19year old Pathan (just when people though that he is going to be there forever) was made into a ‘vintage’ Ekta Kapoor soap opera where tragedies kept on having one after the another.
Another such case was Ajit Agarkar, who also was considered a potential all-rounder. But just as soon as this buzz started catching momentum, Agarkar did something which today, is even more famous than the fact that he is the third highest wicket taker for India in ODI s, 6 ducks in a row (I had a hearty laugh and still continue to whenever I recall the Aussies addressing him with “HERE COMES CHICKEN” whenever he came out to bat). He broke Dennis Lillee’s record of being the fastest to take 50 wickets in ODI’s. A right-handed batsman who used to bat lower down the order and had once batted top of the order in ODIs as a pinch-hitter is no longer in the scenario of making it to the squad despite having highest scores of 95 in ODI’s and 109* in a test match at LORDS, something that has eluded even the likes of Tendulkar and Ponting.
One particular element that disappoints me the most is the graphic department where they put a ball and bat sign infront of anyone who has the ability to do both when the teams are lined up on the big screen. India’s composition today has a majority of youngsters, especially in the one-day side and all the batsmen have the tendency to bowl and a nag of picking up wickets. Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh who is all geared up to be back at what he does best, can all bowl and bowl well but they are in the team for their batting and not bowling. If they fail with the bat yet continue to bowl well, they won’t be considered a part of the 15 member squad anymore.
The fact remains, that India lacks an all rounder currently. We need someone who can do either a Dilshan or a Watson whenever the team is in a spot of bother. So all this loud noises created by fans doesn’t exactly make any sense. Srikkanth is all justified with the team that has been selected, batters and bowlers who have a decent IPL show behind them rather than those who have strung in a plethora of poor performances.
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