Within days after a disastrous and humiliating series against New Zealand in India, India will head-off to Australia for the next edition of the Border Gavaskar series. The first Test at Perth, starts on 22 November and the team will leave India on November 10. They have enough time to play atleast one warm-up game but as always, the team chose not to. Even an game against India A who are already in Australia, has been cancelled. This Indian team despite such humiliation and shame, just thinks that all that they have to do is turn up on any given day and the rest will take care of itself. This arrogance and a sense of superiority has been the bane of Indian cricket. This is the same attitude that prevents every Indian cricket to turn their backs against Ranji Trophy and other first-class games.
It had to show up somewhere and it did spectacularly in a series whitewash. Yet, the players are haughty enough to cancel practice games that if not make them win at Perth, will atleast prepare them for what lies ahead. The obscene money that splurged on the players, constant games throughout the year and the adulation throughout the nation has made them numb to every loss. Now, they are travelling to Australia with not much of hope but silent prayers that they must not be embarrassed again and the series must not be disgraceful.
Mumbaikars are angry with Mumbaikars, so strange
Sanjay Manjrekar who does not easily criticise anyone from Mumbai has tweeted, “The big learning for the selectors from this home season is that do not rest the already well rested players because of their stature,” said Manjrekar in a post on X.
Gavaskar the otherday, was pretty angry with Rohit Sharma. When Mumbaikars oppose Mumbaikars, there is definitely something wrong.
The only problem with Manjrekar’s words of wisdom is that both Rohit and Kohli is unlikely to be around during the next Ranji season. They will retire or they will be dropped unless they have an extraordinary tour of Australia and England. In the unlikely event of it happening, we can safely assume that if they are dropped, they will not want to stage a comeback.
Gavaskar was cheeky in an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai
“Gautam Gambhir has made more runs than both Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate in Test cricket, so only Gautam Gambhir will have to tell the players about how to bat in Australia and what should be the batting approach, maybe then we come up with a good performance.”
I for once, agree with Gavaskar. Ryan Doeschate has not played any Test cricket and so has Abhishek Nayar, leave alone in Australia. On what basis did Gambhir asked for those two, only Gambhir can answer. Having said that, it is only Gambhir who has played Test cricket in Australia. So, he must have an idea of what to expect. This is where he needs to bring in his experience into play. Ofcourse, Rohit, Kohli, Ashwin, Jadeja and Bumrah have all played in Australia and they can also be of help but they themselves are low in confidence after the shellacking and in the case of Kohli, under-performance for over 5 years.
The only problem with that is the fact that Gambhir himself was a failure in Australia. In 4 Tests, he has scored 181 runs at an average of 22.62. Australia is also the country from where Gambhir made his famous comment of preparing rank turners for non-Asian team when they tour India.
India is in serious trouble. The coach was a failure in Australia. The assistant coaches have not played Test cricket, the premier batsmen are not contributing anything and the youngsters are on their first trip. Clearly, this team is heading for disaster.
No wonder, Ricky Ponting is not giving an iota of a chance to India
“I think India will win a Test match somewhere through the five Test matches. But I still think now, Australia probably look a bit more settled, a bit more experienced and we know that they’re a very hard team to beat at home. So I’ll stick with the 3-1,” Ponting said on ICC Review.
Wrapping up the Border Gavaskar series
I will write a preview of the series in a few days. This is just a teaser before the main event.