CAPTAIN AND SELECTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR MESS IN TEST TEAM

There’s a parallel universe in which 0-8 never happened. In that corner of a Utopian field, India returned from England and Australia after competing on even terms, their pride and the world No. 1 ranking intact, two more glorious entries added to their list of overseas conquests. How comforting would it be to exist in that universe now?

Ask Kris Srikkanth and, who inhabits that universe with the regal air of a frog in the well that can’t be bothered about reality. By the way Dhoni resides there too.  Left to them, they would have made only one change to the Indian side that underwent a WACA walloping back in January, the team’s eighth successive away Test thrashing: MS Dhoni returning to the XI in place of Wridhiman Saha, having served his one-Test ban for poor over-rates. Yes … After all the CSK superstar is your bread earner. He brings in the crowds for you in Chepuk during the IPL tamasha.

Srikkanth took charge of the selection committee in September 2008. Dhoni took charge in November 2008.  India was on the verge of toppling Australia at home as the No. 1 Test side in the world, and their golden generation already on the verge of being disbanded. Indeed, two of the primary architects – Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble – would call time on their careers by the end of that 2008 home series against Australia. Somehow, Srikkanth and MS Dhoni have managed to not see the shambles that their tenure have left behind.

Srikkanth and Dhoni’s  mandate could not have been clearer: preside over the inevitable ascendancy, bask in the glory, but don’t let it distract from laying the foundation for the next generation to take over. The latter goal would have required them to show foresight, guts, and the ability to communicate: Foresight in spotting the next line of talent; Guts in choosing what was best for the team’s long-term future instead of taking the easy way out; Communication skills in letting Dravid, Laxman, Tendulkar and Zaheer in on the long-term plan, making them a part of the hand-over process, hand-holding the Sharmas, the Pujaras and the Yadavs into the future, ensuring the boys were ready when time eventually caught up with the men.

Four years have passed. Four years in which India, having scaled the peak could have gone on to show the world how legacies are handed over, and how excellence is institutionalized. Instead, four years since September 2008, Srikkanth’s bunch has piled one inexplicable selection on top of the other, without managing to discover a single Test talent that has gone on to become a regular. Not one in four years.

India played 41 Tests under Srikkanth’s watch and 37 under Dhoni’s Captaincy. 16 players were blooded during this period, of which only three – Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and Umesh Yadav – are first-choice starters for the Hyderabad Test. Only four of their 16 discoveries have managed more than 10 Tests so far - Suresh Raina, Amit Mishra, M Vijay, and Pragyan Ojha.

Jaydev Unadkat and Wridhiman Saha have become trivia questions, subjected to unexpected Test debuts at inopportune moments. Abhinav Mukund has been exposed at the highest level, thrown into away Tests without being eased in at home. Praveen Kumar has his name on the Lord’s honours’ board, but not in Srikkanth/ Dhoni’s  good books. Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun have had sobering experiences at the highest level, wondering if they will ever get another chance. What are the selectors and captain trying to tell them, by picking in their stead a fresh-from-rehab Ishant Sharma, despite his crushing ordinariness in Australia?

Was there any stage during these four years, when Srikkanth’s merry men considered putting together a succession plan?

Even after 37 tests for Dhoni, team hasn’t  found Ganguly’s successor for No. 6. Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane are yet to debut, and Cheteshwar Pujara has not been allowed to build on a promising start – a trio that has actually done the hard yards in domestic cricket. Has anyone taken the pains to talk to these youngsters? Did anyone tell S Badrinath why all his domestic toil wasn’t worth more than 2 Tests?

Laxman is a man of too much class, and even while announcing his hurried retirement in undesirable circumstances, displayed as much dignity as the situation would allow. Suddenly Badrinath is back in business, not in place of Raina as should have originally been the case. The circus continues. Hopefully the next person in charge will be a proper ring master; Not a clown.