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Gautam Gambhir's sparkling century for the Board
President's XI against the English tourists was by
all accounts, pleasing to the eye. It featured all
the components of an aggressive knock played by a
left-hander; elegance, precision in shot-selection
and exquisite timing. Yet, one cannot help but feel
that the well-wishers of the young man would be a
disturbed lot. The fact is that he played that
innings when there was no pressure on him. The
Indian team for the first Test was announced on the
first evening of the three-day game, which had room
for Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer and none for Gambhir.
The Delhi opener made his way to the middle of
Baroda's IPCL Ground on the second day, secure in
the knowledge that he had nothing more to lose. He
then proceeded to bat freely, and the outcome was a
hundred.
It would be easy for Gambhir's fans to moan about
the national selectors not postponing their meeting
by 24 hours. If they would have met one day, the Gambhir fan-club might argue, their favourite would
have definitely made it. But could it have been
guaranteed that Gambhir would have batted as
confidently as he did had he known that he stood
the risk of losing his place in the Test XI? He had
exasperated one and all in the one-dayers in
Pakistan, when he threw his wicket away with some
peculiar shots after completing the tough job of
getting set. Not for nothing do they say that
cricket is a game played in the mind more than the
field. What Gambhir and his coaches and associates
ought to work towards is achieving a state of mind
that steers clear of extraneous pressures and
insecurities. The young man's talent cannot be
doubted, but his temperament is under a cloud.
There is no place for 'fair-weather' professionals
in this day and age, least of all in competitive
sport. Gambhir needs to pull up his socks and
deliver when it matters, no question about it.
The Indian selectors pulled off a masterstroke by
naming Piyush Chawla, the teenage leg-spinning
sensation, in the fourteen for the first Test at
Nagpur. The decision can be termed as the
cricketing equivalent of a 'win-win' strategy. Even
if he doesn't make it to the final XI, Chawla has a
great opportunity to learn by observing cricketers
whom he has grown up watching. Anil Kumble, his
esteemed leg-spinning senior, has been known to
never be short of advice when interacting with
youngsters. For Chawla, it should be an
apprenticeship to cherish.
A more delicious thought is of Chawla being
pitchforked into the XI. He is no mug with the bat,
and with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan more
than capable of manning the no. 6 and no. 7 spots,
there is a distinct possibility that the Dravid-Chappell
combine may consider playing five specialist
batsmen and five bowlers. The brownness of the
Nagpur strip has already been noted and commented
upon by both camps, and the prospect of facing a
three-pronged spin attack comprising Kumble,
Harbhajan and Chawla won't enthuse the visitors.
The Indian skipper knows his cricket history, and
he might be aware of England's tour of India in
1984-85, wherein his predecessor Sunil Gavaskar
promoted another teenaged leg-spinner into the XI
for the first Test at Mumbai, simply because the
English batsmen have traditionally never been
comfortable against bowling of this type. The
bowler, whose name was L. Sivaramakrishnan, went on
to bag match figures of 12-181, and India won by
eight wickets.
The English batsmen of 1984-85 had no answer to
Siva's wiles, despite the fact that they had played
him before in a three-day game. The advantage
Chawla enjoys is that the English of 2005-06 have
never handled him before. Another ace up his
considerable sleeve that is home to many a
leg-spinning secret is his ability to excel under
pressure, as he recently proved in the under-19
World Cup, and that amazing spell in the Challenger
Trophy earlier this season when he deceived Sachin
Tendulkar of all batsmen.
Although Vikram Raj Vir Singh, who has been hailed
as the fastest bowler in India, is part of the
squad, one expects to see the hardworking S.
Sreesanth take the new ball along with Irfan Pathan.
Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, who have been
dropped, are in dire need of joining Gambhir on the
'introspection' table.
The VCA Stadium at Nagpur, situated right in the
belly of India, isn't the kind of setting the
world's best all-rounder would have liked to make
his debut as captain of his country. Andrew
Flintoff would have preferred an English venue like
Lord's, or his home ground, Old Trafford in
Manchester, to take command of his team for the
first time in the Test. But he will give it
everything, as will his injury-hit side.
The Indians may be the overwhelming favourites on
their own soil, but Flintoff cannot be taken
lightly. Even if he does half of what his peerless
predecessor Ian Botham did against India in the
Jubilee Test at Mumbai in 1979-80 (114 and 13-106),
his team will be in the driver's seat. Like Botham
and unlike Gambhir, Flintoff possesses the knack of
excelling at critical times, and there cannot
possibly be a more critical stage than the one in
which the English team presently finds itself, with
several key players, including the captain Michael
Vaughan, vice-captain Marcus Trescothick, and
strike bowler Simon Jones having flown home for
treatment.
Rahul and co better be wary.
The teams for the Nagpur Test -
India (from):
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Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Wasim
Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif,
Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper),
Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Irfan
Pathan, S. Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh, Vikram
Raj Vir Singh
England (from):
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Andrew Flintoff (captain), Ian Bell, Paul
Collingwood, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard,
Geraint Jones (wicketkeeper), Kevin Pietersen, Liam
Plunkett, Matt Prior, Andrew Strauss, Shaun Udal,
Monty Panesar, Ian Blackwell, James Anderson,
Alastair Cook, Owais Shah.
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