Starting from a headling in TOI on
‘ignoring sixth sense’ – my thoughts meandered, ending with Anil Kumble bowling
in Antigua Test of 2002 – (he bowled more than 40000 deliveries in Tests and
why this should find any mention at all !)
In the Cricket crazy Nation, there
are some pockets where soccer is also followed ! – Kolkata, still smarting from Brazil 's
loss, was preparing to cheer for Argentina West Bengal
is way above even the world average.
Turning
back to our favourite game, Indian’s record on the first Test in away
tests have been dismal and in that angle, the draw at Trent Bridge India Melbourne , the same year, India
TOI states that for a team which has
historically travelled poorly and been notoriously poor starters, Indian fans
should be happy after MS Dhoni’s ‘young brigade’ batted out the whole of final
day to draw the first Test ; it was perhaps the only result possible on an
unusually flat Trent Bridge pitch. Credit should go to Binny, playing his first
Test match, as the fourth pacer in the side who can bat a bit. Bat he did, with
aplomb, one must say, but it neither proved nor disproved whether the team
management had made the correct decision by leaving out a frontline batsman on
a lifeless track on which a fourth pacer would have been superfluous. Modern
teams generally like to play with seven batsmen and four frontline bowlers in
spite of complaints of excessive workload from the pace brigade. Dhoni himself
has rarely ventured out of this comfort zone, and it is a pity that he chose to
do so in a game where an extra batsman would have ensured a tamer draw for his
side. There is no harm in being experimental, but lab chosen by the Indian team
management was not ideal, for, it was the kind of pitch that did not indicate
the true value of the runs scored or wickets taken. It, however, did test
players’ temperament to hilt.
A more than veiled suggestion of
playing Rohit Sharma leaving out the scoring Binny ! …. ,.biased it sounds ! –
Binny made runs – with composure – he bowled little and is likely to succeed in
English conditions….. will they write in the same vein of Ravindra Jadeja – who
certainly cannot be your main spinner ! ~ and it is not as though Rohit Sharma
would save every match with his batting – Binny has proved with the solitary
chance and sure deserves to have more assurance in the playing XI – even as the
Press pounced on his selection asserting that he is no good for Test.
On the flat surface too, India was in a spot
of bother before Binny steadied the boat – an interesting post in Cricinfo states
that – at 3.42pm, Stuart Binny let one
Moeen Ali offbreak turn past his inside edge and was given out lbw. Immediately the traffic on the player page of
Andy Ganteaume came down. Ganteaume is the only man who was dropped and never
picked again after scoring a debut century, although Rodney Redmondhad one
hundred in one Test but he would have played again barring contact lens
problems. Binny had fallen 22 short of a century on debut after four days of
giving the impression India
Binny played a nervous shot in the first innings
to get out for 1, and then looked so innocuous with the ball he bowled only 10
overs in the innings while his role was to bowl 10 in a day. Suddenly he walked
in for what the team would have looked at as the most important innings of the
Test. Binny was not even playing for his place in the side, for there were no
guarantees he would be retained even if he scored a hundred here !!!! Binny
might or might not play ever again, but at least he will not be remembered as
the selection error in a Test that India
made quite a few other errors to lose to England
Binny actually took the pressure off Jadeja,
who had been playing and missing regularly – there is case for his batting
higher though critics would pounce stating that the quality of the innings is
hard to tell on such a pitch. In one
respect Andy Ganteaume, a diminutive wicketkeeper-batsman, eclipsed even Don
Bradman. Whereas Bradman ended his career with a Test average of 99.94,
Gunteaume's was 112. On his Test debut, against England
at Port-of-Spain in 1947-48, he scored 112 and yet he never played for West Indies again. West Indies had a formidable batting
line-up around this time - it was the era of Walcott, Worrell, Weekes, Sobers,
Kanhai, Rae, Stollmeyer and Gomez - and there were suggestions that he slowed
down when nearing his hundred, possibly costing West
Indies the chance of victory.
My memory took me to a
Wicketkeeper batsman whose gritty 115 not out in Antigua
in 2002, gave him the honour of the youngest wicketkeeper to score a Test
century and the second Indian wicketkeeper to make one overseas. He was just 20
and it was only his third Test - later
he lost his place in the Test side to Parthiv Patel, and in the one-day side to
the appointment of Rahul Dravid as keeper in the quest for balance. He withered having played only 6 Tests.
It was the 4th Test – Test no. 1602 played at
St. Johns Antigua in May 2002. India
opened with Shiv Sunder Das and Wasim Jaffer – runs came from Jaffer 86; Dravid
91 (Sachin made a duck) – VVS Laxman made 130 – while Ajay Ratra remained
unbeaten on 115 – as India declared at 513 for 9 in 196 overs. Kumble bowled 14
consecutive overs – becoming the first bowler to dismiss Brian Lara while
bowling with a broken jaw. He was due to fly back to Bangalore Faisalabad
So, despite reasonable success,
some braying for the blood of Binny …wanting someone else in the playing X1
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
15th July 2014
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