My readers will be reading this column on the morning of the all important Kolkata Test match starting on Valentine?s Day, the outcome of which will decide if India continues to be the number one side in world cricket. With Eden Gardens hosting a Test match after two and a half years and with the match having special significance, it is only natural that it will have generated considerable hype. What remains somewhat lost under the hype is the question: if the Indians are unable to stand up to the might of Steyn and company for the second time in a row, what will happen to us come November when India tour South Africa for a three-Test series?

More importantly, is the Kolkata Test match the all-important moment for skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni? Nagpur was his first Test loss as skipper and it is of prime importance that he stops it from becoming a habit. A standout personal performance in the absence of Rahul Dravid is all the more essential if the Kolkata script is to be different. Also, Kolkata for the second time in a row will help give us an indication how good the foundation of our cricket is and whether our domestic structure is good enough to produce quality international cricketers. We failed miserably in answering this challenge at Nagpur, with Murali Vijay getting out for 4 and 30, Badrinath for 56 and 6 and Wridhhiman Saha for 0 and 36. Unless Vijay and Badrinath stand up and deliver at the Garden of Eden, alarm bells should start ringing in India?s cricket quarters, for Sachin and Laxman will only be around for two more years at best.

While saying how important the match is and how significant India?s performance will be, the one element that I am forced to mention is luck. Dhoni has never had a problem with this factor in his brief tenure as captain. Take the Australia series in October 2008 for example. It started with Anil Kumble at the helm and was a four-Test series which India finally won 2-0. Interestingly, for Dhoni, both these victories came under him and the other two tests with Kumble as captain were drawn. In cricket, luck has always had a very important role to play and India?s skipper, so far at least, has been blessed in that regard.

The early signs in Kolkata, so far, all point to Dhoni getting back the touch he had lost at Nagpur. VVS Laxman is back to boost the middle order. Unlike what is being said in all quarters, the man who has played on this track more than anyone else, Saurav Ganguly, suggests that it will offer sideways movement for the first session but the bounce will hardly be a matter of concern. This should ring magic in the ears of Sreesanth, back in the side in place of the struggling Ishant Sharma. Sree is capable of landing the ball on the seam for all six deliveries in an over and is expected to get the necessary movement that so eluded India in Nagpur. A perfect foil for Zaheer and we will surely not have to bear the pain of a 300-plus run partnership from the South African top order. Dhoni should also look up to the over 35,000 spectators expected to watch the Eden Test match every day. At Nagpur, India?s home advantage was nullified with the match being played out in an empty stadium with less than a thousand spectators. Cricket is not only a contest with 22 players out in the middle. Rather, what makes playing cricket at Melbourne all the more intimidating is the over 60,000 Australian fans breathing down your neck. Eden Gardens has this reputation of standing up for the Indian cause, as Steve Waugh?s 2001 Australians will testify. I can only hope the Kolkatans will not let us down this time round as well.

?The writer is cricket historian