Scattered India face tough task against South AfricaConnor Williams has now swung between two extremes in the littlematter of a week. He appeared a child of destiny when just one, orlet’s say two knocks put him on the plane to South Africa. The scriptseemed to be running the expected course when his seniors encouragedhim on the first two days of the nets and the word leaked he would beplaying the first Test, despite the Chatsworth wash-out. Standing in acorner while Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid practiced in the middleon Friday, he indeed cut a sorry figure. Openers are a dying breed inIndia. There were never many in the first place. A senior member ofthe side was spot on when he said the young openers must be given anextended run. “From pop-gun attack of home, you are suddenly put inthe firing line of the genuine quick bowlers. And then they get only afew Tests to play in a year.”
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“The rest of the time, it is Sourav and Sachin opening the innings insome 40-45 one-day internationals per season. How does a young guygain in experience and confidence?”Indeed, the Test openers in India get international matches in fitsand starts only. Either you got to be patient with them or ask recordbreakers Ganguly and Tendulkar to make way for young openers in onedayers so they get more used to international fast bowlers. It is amalaise which befalls a lot of young Indian openers including oncehighly rated Wasim Jaffer of Mumbai. “He looked an extremely goodopener to me at one stage,” said legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar “Butlately I am not too sure of that.” Vinayak Mane is another youngsterwho has been shortlisted by those who matter as an opener with afuture.Wright has no doubt the success of openers will go a long way indetermining India’s performance in this series. A case in point is theHarare Test in Zimbabwe where Das had two partners in Hemang Badaniand Sameer Dighe in the two innings and both came a cropper. Theresult – India couldn’t chase even a score of 200-odd and lost thematch.
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It has fallen on Rahul Dravid’s lot to shore up the sagging Indianship as its helmsman for the first Test. He is a team – man but nottoo inclined on opening the innings. His dilemma is understandable -he is well and truly established in the middle order and if hesucceeds, he might just be burdened with the job for many more Testmatches to come. He must be asked to produce the goods within hiscapacity and every issue of the team must not be laid in front of hisdoor.So we have a situation where a South African team is announced a weekin advance whereas the Indians are struggling to put their elevenliterally going into toss on the morning of the match. The wash-out atthe Chatsworth has been a body blow for the Indians. It was the onlygame they could have tried out the five new members flown especiallyfor the Test series. The sad part is, everyone knew there was littlepossibility of play at least a day before the match was set to roll.But neither the Indians tried too hard nor the KwaZulu-Natal Union,the cricket body under which falls the purview of Chatsworth body aswell, was keen to arrange a game for the visitors elsewhere in Durban.Indians did not protest aloud then and are now sulking in silence atthe lost opportunity for some time in the middle.Ganguly meanwhile has now received his new bats from a Meerutmanufacturer and it weighs more than 10 grams less than his 150-gramplus stick of willow for the one-dayers. Quite possible the Indiancaptain realises he would be peppered with short stuff and he musthave a light stick to move into position quickly in the Test series.
