Pace and Bounce

‘The Away Game’

Norman Cowans loses his helmet while trying to avoid a bouncer from Dennis Lillee
Source: Google

The Indian cricket team has won with a huge margin against the visiting West Indies team in the first test match of a two-match series. Debutante Prithvi Shaw impressed one and all with his century on debut. However, veterans have questioned the wisdom of such a series at home against a side that’s visibly weaker. 

The India Cricket Team and the BCCI is always a hot topic in Indian media.  Players, coaches and fans consider ‘Test’ matches to be the true format of judging one’s ability as a world class player.  The popular opinion, as it stands, is that red ball cricket brings forward the true spirit of the gentlemen’s game, challenges your technique, skills and temperament.  Looking at history, India have never been much of a travelling side.  The swinging overcast conditions in England and New Zealand, the bouncy pitches Down Under and the pacy wickets in South Africa have forever troubled our batsmen.  In the aftermath of the match fixing scandal in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Indian team under an aggressive leadership of Sourav Ganguly, started to challenge team’s overseas with their good performances in England in 2002 and the World Cup in South Africa the following year.  The confidence in the limited overs format was difficult to repeat in the longer version. Test series wins abroad have been more of a distant dream having won only in England (2007) and New Zealand (2008-09).  Apart from this, most of India’s bilateral test series wins abroad have been in the sub-continent and in the Carribean.  The pitches used in the India sub-continent are hardly different from the Indian wickets, and sometimes even slower therefore beating Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in their own den is not much of a triumph, considering the quality of batsman in their respective squads.

Ajinkya Rahane ducking to a bouncer on South African pitches
Source: Google

The ongoing tightly scheduled test series against West Indies is a perfect example of home dominance.  The defeats in overseas test series are quickly forgotten by crushing and overwhelming wins in India.  The same team which looses to England in England and to Australia in Australia, run riot and register comprehensive wins in home test matches. The current West Indies team is not the same anymore, doesn’t possess the same artillery and venom as it used to in the 70s’ and 80s’, comprising Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding.  The troubled relationship between the West Indies Cricket Board and the players union, due to payments and fees issues, have forced some of their star players to withdraw from test matches resulting in a weaker test side. 

Former India Under-19 Captain Prithvi Shaw
Source: Google

On the brighter side, emerging talents from the Under-19’s like Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill present an extrememly colorful selection headaches for the selection committee.  Performance from 19 years old  Shaw in particular has been simply majestic.  Therefore giving him the exposure at the top level in the lengthiest format of the game might simply polish him. But can it be reproduced in crunch matches in swinging conditions at Lord’s in England or on the bouncy WACA pitch in Perth?  Former legends like Sunil Gavaskar have urged the Indian Captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri to look back at motivating Indian wins in West Indies and England to draw some inspiration.

India vice-captain Shubman Gill
Source: Google

The Indian team has lost the last seven series played across England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand and possess a dismal 3-17 (win-loss) record in their last 32 test matches in these countries.  There’s a reason the former players are concerned over the ‘boring’ Windies tour and I cannot agree more. Coach Ravi Shastri has repeatedly stated in press conferances that they want this Indian Team to be the best travelling side in the world, but what they really need to prepare are some bouncy pacy tracks at home for domestic batsmen to hone their skills or maybe just hand them India A tours across the above mentioned countries before trying them in the international circuit.