da bet nacional： Almost all outstanding teams in the game’s history have had one or twoall-rounders
Partab Ramchand24-Oct-2002How good, then, is the current Indian team? One cannot, by anyyardstick, call it a great team, for three main reasons – unimpressiveshowings abroad, an inconsistent bowling attack, and the lack of anall-rounder. It would certainly qualify as a great team in homeconditions, and this has been proved beyond doubt by results. Only oneseries has been lost since 1987, and since then the overall recordshows 28 wins and only 10 losses in 51 matches, including the twovictories in the current contest against the West Indies. This alsoincludes an unbelievable run of 10 straight victories in the period1988-1994.
Almost all outstanding teams in the game’s history have had one or twoall-rounders. Keith Miller in the all-conquering Australian side ofthe late 40s and early 50s, Trevor Bailey in the virtually unbeatableEngland team of the 50s and Gary Sobers in the great West Indian teamof the 60s are names that come immediately to mind.
If ratings were to be based on only results at home, India would bepushing Australia out of the top slot. But rankings are rightly -based on home and away records, and that is why India figuressomewhere in the middle, despite some improved performances of latesuch as winning a Test in the West Indies and sharing the series inEngland. The fact remains, however, that India has not won a seriesoutside the subcontinent since 1986.The mediocre bowling is also a hindrance to the Indian team’sobjective of climbing up the ratings ladder. Unfortunately there islittle that can be done about it. The pace bowling will continue torevolve around the resurrected Javagal Srinath, Ajit Agarkar, ZaheerKhan and Ashish Nehra, while Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh andSarandeep Singh will continue to man the spin department. The reservestrength of players like Tinu Yohannan, L Balaji, Murali Kartik andAmit Mishra does not inspire confidence. While it is true that Zaheer,Kumble and Harbhajan have done reasonably well abroad of late, thechief thrust of their striking power is still restricted to Indianconditions.For some time now, the Indian team has also lacked a genuine allrounder. The last player to don that mantle was probably ManojPrabhakar, and he last played a Test in 1995. Since then players likeSunil Joshi, Agarkar and Sanjay Bangar have all played utility roleswithout graduating to the more exalted all-rounder status. SouravGanguly has also chipped in with some valuable bowling spells, but onewould hesitate even to call him a utility player. In desperation,captains have even turned to Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, butto be candid all that such tactics do is to expose the fact that Indiadoes not possess an all-rounder.Almost all outstanding teams in the game’s history have had one or twoall-rounders. Keith Miller in the all-conquering Australian side ofthe late 40s and early 50s, Trevor Bailey in the virtually unbeatableEngland team of the 50s and Gary Sobers in the great West Indian teamof the 60s are names that come immediately to mind.Of course there have been a few exceptions to this rule. The rampagingWest Indian side of the 80s did not have a genuine all-rounder, butthe awesome strength of their batting and bowling covered up for thislacuna. For that matter, even the current Australian team, regarded asthe finest in the game today, do not have a genuine all-rounder intheir ranks, but again the very strong batting and bowling makes upfor it.The problem with the Indian team is that while the batting line-up isthe kind that the bowler sees in his worst nightmares, it is not ableto fully make up for the rather ordinary bowling and the lack of aneffective all-rounder. On designer pitches at home, the bowlingsuddenly becomes formidable, and this, aligned with the powerfulbatting, has seen the Indians enjoy an enviable record in thiscountry.Indeed, the batting really is something else. I am inclined to believethat Indian batting has never had it so good. Never in the past, fromthe heady days of Vijay Merchant and Vijay Hazare in the 40s, throughPolly Umrigar and Vijay Manjrekar in the 50s, MAK Pataudi and ChanduBorde in the 60s, Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath in the 70s, toDilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin in the 80s has a line-upinspired such awe.Never before has an Indian batting line-up possessed three playerswith career averages of 50-plus and four more with averages of 40-plus, as this Indian side had going into the second Test of thecurrent series. Unfortunately even this embarrassment of riches arguably the best batting in Test cricket today – cannot guarantee theIndian team finishing anywhere near the top of the rankings forreasons already stated, and this is a real pity. Till then, the sidewill hover between the good and the very good without being a greatone.