The art of Shouldering Arms

After New Zealand handed India their biggest drubbing at home with a 3-0 victory in the test series, India's chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship Final squarely depends on how well they perform in Australia. Traditionally, Indian batsmen have better records at Australia compared to the other SENA ( South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries and they play bounce which is more predominant in Australia better than swing. The recent past in which India won their last two test series in Australia suggest the same. But the loss against New Zealand has opened the doors again to the pertinent question - is the new and upcoming generation of batsmen skilled enough to face quality bowling in tests?

Indians have themselves to blame for the loss- the series started ominously after Rohit Sharma chose to bat first after it poured in Bangalore. He admitted his mistake later but the woes of the top order continued and apart from glimpses of brilliance from Rishabh Pant, Y B Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Sarfraz Khan, the contribution from others were limited. The captain Rohit Sharma continued to try and dominate the bowling and never appeared to change his style to suit the situation. India lost the opening wicket early every time except for once when the opening pair added 72. While Virat Kohli appeared indifferent against the spinners, the top order collapsed almost every time India batted and the middle-lower order had its task cut out to repair the innings. KL Rahul whose style is probably suited to test cricket more than T20s, is a class act when in form. But his inability to convert starts batting at No 6 and diffidence in judgement forced the think tank to drop him for the second test. It remains to be seen what call the selectors take on his future, but it is soothing to hear that he has been selected for the Australian tour.

India is touring Australia without Ajinkya Rahane who led them astutely when they came back from behind in 2020-21, Cheteshwar Pujara who batted like a warrior and with Virat Kohli who looks out of sorts and other relatively inexperienced players although Gill, Pant & Rahul and the other all rounders like Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja bring in a vast amount of experience. The batting revolved around Rahane and Pujara last time with contributions from others. Unless Virat Kohli leaps back to his best, the Indian batting may be found wanting in the 5 test series against Australia.

This takes us to the long- impending and the now imminent problem of Indian batters' lack of patience in test cricket. Greats like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly knew when to be defend and when to attack. The current team management with its mini - Bazball-like strategy seems to have lost the plot in the series against New Zealand. The Kiwis after the first test even announced that a turning wicket in the second test would be playing into their hands. And it turned out to be true as Mitchell Santner, Glen Phillips and Ajaz Patel made the Indian batting look clueless.

While the most famous ball left alone in cricketing history would be that of Balwinder Singh Sandhu to Gordon Greenidge in the 1983 world cup final, the art of shouldering arms is deeply rooted within test cricket. Any new batsman leaves the ball to understand the swing, bounce and seam movement on and off the pitch. Even the non striker is in play communicating to the batsman whenever a leave lacks judgement - the bowling team is generally known to create an aura of doubt by gestures and noises which make the batsmen guess and thereby plant seeds of doubt in their already confused minds. While Shubman Gill tried this and got bowled, the sheer audacity of batsmen like Rishabh Pant almost took India to victory in the third test while many others were out caught/lbw/bowled - this showcased India's inability to adapt. It appeared that they were not prepared to respect the bowling attack and the situation. While these are amazingly skilled players, they lacked patience when it mattered and the mode of some dismissals force us to feel that deservingly but painfully India lost.

The coaching staff of Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayar, Morne Morkel and Ryan ten Doeschate along with T Dilip and others have their task cut out since India needs to win 4-0 against Australia to cement a place in the WTC final if it does not want to depend on other results. This would be a wasted opportunity if India fails to reach the final as with the sheer quality of players and the fact that some may not be playing for India in test cricket by the time the next WTC cycle draws to a close, India is currently a force to reckon with. With players like Abhimanyu Easwaran and Ruturaj Gaikwad waiting in the wings to get opportunities, the Indian batting must start firing from the word go in Australia if they are to have a realistic chance of beating Australia.