The Board of Control for Cricket in India?s senior selection committee at last seems to have come of age. If the squad for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka that was picked in Mumbai on Wednesday serves as an indication, then this might possibly be the harbinger of a change in strategy.
For so long, national selectors banked on the bits-and-pieces cricketers, the so-called limited-overs specialists, to provide balance to the side in the shorter formats of the game. The common perception was that an all-rounder, who can roll his arm over and bat a bit, is a necessity in one-day cricket.
The team for the Sri Lanka tour, however, has only specialist players?seven batsmen, four seamers, three spinners and a wicketkeeper. Utility all-rounders like Ravindra Jadeja, Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan were left out. Jadeja was bought for $2 million by the Chennai Super Kings ahead of IPL-5. He was the most sought after cricketer in the auction because he could contribute with the bat, with the ball and on the field.
However, since the tour of Australia his form has dipped. Moreover, he isn?t a specialist but a player who has moderate skills with both the bat and the ball but is not an out and out match-winner in any one department.
Ever since India won the 1983 World Cup, it almost became imperative to have players in the team who can contribute in more than one department. The class of ?83 had a genuine all-rounder in Kapil Dev? a match-winner, who could win a game both with bat and ball. The likes of Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny and Madan Lal flourished around him. After winning the World Cup, India also annexed the World Series Trophy in Australia two years later. The contributions from every player notwithstanding, that team basically revolved around two greats ? Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. Dilip Vengsarkar, too, was enjoying the time of his life as a batsman and for a brief period, Mohinder Amarnath flirted with greatness.
But after Gavaskar retired and Kapil started to lose his nip, India became a favourite whipping boy in world cricket. The powers-that-be, however, stuck to the policy of picking ?utility? cricketers. The likes of Bharat Arun, Ajay Sharma, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and others were picked and got exposed at the top level. Only Robin Singh survived for a while. Things didn?t change in the new millennium as well. Dinesh Mongia was preferred over VVS Laxman for the 2003 World Cup because of his left-arm spin. A choice, which even after a decade, sounds inexplicable. And a genuine all-rounder is someone who can walk into the side on the basis of one single skill and is more than effective with the other. The 1980s was the golden era of the all-rounders, when Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Kapil gave us such golden moments to savour. Greg Chappell, when he became team India coach, tried to mould Irfan Pathan into a genuine all-rounder. But it didn?t work out that way. Pathan soon lost his place in the team and has never got back to his best since.
Yusuf Pathan, too, was given a long rope under the pretext that if he failed with the bat he could make that up with his flattish off-spin. Yusuf never won India matches even on home soil. He was a member of the 2011 winning Indian team but contributed very little.
So far the selectors refused to learn from their mistakes. Players like Abhishek Nayar and JP Yadav were tried and when they failed, the committee opted for someone else.
However, last season was an eye opener. The hammering in England and Australia and the failure to reach the final of the Asia Cup, which was played in the sub-continent, forced the selectors to think differently. Coach Duncan Fletcher was fed up with the mediocrity of the side and asked for a change in outlook during Wednesday?s selection committee meeting.
The BCCI bigwigs kept a stiff upper lip even as India got into a losing habit overseas, but deep inside they were worried. The euphoria of the World Cup evaporated. The Board president asked for a feedback from Rahul Dravid after the Australian tour and during the meeting the legendary batsman suggested to pick the best available side regardless of circumstances and conditions. In fact, the idea of having cricketers who can play dual roles came from the English counties. But it could never really ensure success at the highest level. England often played with players capable of handling more than one department of the game and they are the only top cricket nation not to win the World Cup yet.
Yes, the great Australian side that rolled over everyone occasionally played Ian Harvey or Shane Lee, but with so many world-class players in their ranks they could have afforded that luxury. And also they had Adam Gilchrist, the man who revolutionised the concept of an all-rounder.
This Indian team has M S Dhoni, who is very much in the Gilchrist mould and is the only specialist all-rounder in the side. Hopefully, the selectors will judge Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina only on the basis of their batting prowess, now that they have decided to change their approach.
Cricket, despite its commercialisation, is still a simple game. You need to score runs and take wickets to win matches. And specialists certainly do their job better than the bits-and-pieces players.