Stupendous but not Surprising !
The most heartening aspect of India's performance during Australia's current
tour has been that of the bowlers, especially the spin wizards in Harbhajan
Singh and Anil Kumble. In fact the relentless toil of the bowlers has provided
substantial reprieve from the flack that was destined the team's way for the
disappointingly lacklustre outing in Bangalore. The Indian team has been haunted
by the collective downslide of the top order batsmen whose otherwise combined
reputation makes for colossal reading. Since the break after the tour to
Pakistan, the batting has become more of a woeful charade and one that has
terribly disappointed after India's amazing streak when they seemed to be
scaling mountains as a close-knit and fearsome unit.
If the performance of the bowlers was the saving grace of the first Test, their
remarkable comeback after lunch on the first day in Chennai had Australia on the
ropes and gasping for breath. And palpably Irfan Pathan's batting is the talk of
the town given his tremendous fighting spirit against the men from Down Under in
first stemming the downward spiral with Parthiv Patel for company in the first
innings and then, holding out and tarnishing Shane Warne's ego with some
blistering batting in the second innings of the previous Test that would have
earned praise from Sachin Tendulkar no less. Once again the Australians found it
annoyingly difficult to dislodge Irfan Pathan who came in as overnight watchman
at the fall of Yuvraj Singh's wicket in this Test.
Irfan Pathan's bowling may not reveal a wicket heap against his name but to say
he has been ineffective would be unfair. He is a tremendously talented bowler
but one that has to be nurtured with care and tuned to help him get the most of
his brief but tenacious experience laced with enormous responsibility. Although
Ajit Agarkar boasts of a better performance against the Australians, he was
surprisingly left out in favour of Zaheer Khan who appears still in the
adjustment phase. Irfan Pathan has been India's most noticeable fast bowler as
opposed to the plethora in the Australian dressing room in Glenn McGrath (who
created much of the damage in the first Test), Jason Gillespie (fiery and
untiring as usual) and Michael Kasprowicz (who keeps putting up good
performances against the Indians) with Brett Lee cooling his heels in the den.
That puts Irfan's job in perspective. It is important to mention because
suddenly all talk is rife with Irfan being pushed up the order which would be a
mistake of huge proportions.
To burden this young but remarkably mature mind to compensate for the failure of
the top order is plain too much. His main concentration should always be his
bowling which is, without doubt, India's strength after the exit of Javagal
Srinath. While his batting can be fine tuned, he should be allowed to reign free
at the lower half of the batting line up. Most great bowling allrounders over
the decades have been successful simply because they had the freedom to play
without pressure. That gave them immense incentive to make an honest
contribution with the bat which in turn translated into their confident and
commendable bowling performances. Irfan Pathan needs to be nurtured not
pressurized.
That the spinners have really come to the fore and been instrumental in reviving
the vivid and divergent interest in the game is an oh so obviously stated fact.
What better corroboration than the fact that the tantalizing and most intriguing
battle for the position of the highest wicket taker in the history of the game
is being played out by two of the most mesmerizing spinners! Shane Warne's haul
of four wickets in the previous Tests was considered poor! But that is because
he has raised the bar so high that even a reasonable performance is made to
appear mediocre. When Yuvraj Singh fell in the first innings in the current
Test, Shane Warne breathed a little easier as he had equalled Muttiah
Muralitharan's record of 532 Test wickets. He was ecstatic to have Irfan Pathan
caught in the slips as it meant that once again he was reigning king of Test
match wickets with 533 adorning his name. Shane Warne's ban last year over the
use of diuretics allowed Muralitharan to frogleap through the neck-and-neck
tussle between the two most riveting bowlers to watch. Muralitharan's shoulder
surgery rules him out of international cricket probably until the end of the
year and Shane Warne will be looking to capitalise in the interim.
Anil Kumble's twenty-fifth five wicket haul in Tests in the first innings in
this Test is the sixth best effort in international cricket. His career though
is written off with the fading sunset with remarkable consistency and equally
remarkable is how he keeps bouncing back with such brilliant, breathtaking
performances such as the seven wickets for forty-eight feat in this match. He
may not be the biggest spinner of the ball and not all surfaces really bring out
the best in him but he is a very real threat on any pitch that is conducive to
bounce, enough to have the batsman in two minds. He made a decent pitch seem
almost demon like with his seven wickets for forty-eight in thirteen
spellbinding overs. When Harbhajan Singh pulled off the double five wicket haul
stint in both innings of the Bangalore Test, it was his sixth successive five
wicket haul against the Australians at home. In a match that was too
demoralizing for players and spectators alike, he fought back criticism with
splendid match figures of eleven wickets. His previous successive great figures
came in Chennai as well with fifteen wickets (his best being eight wickets for
eighty-four in the second innings) and thirteen wickets at Kolkata. Harbhajan's
rich haul of thirty odd wickets during Australia's 2000-'01 tour makes him a
formidable opposition.