Stuart Binny: Closer to the ‘door-out’ than ever before?

When Stuart Binny came on to bowl the eleventh over of the West Indies’ innings the scoreboard showed 132-1. Johnson Charles and Evin Lewis -who came in for Chris Gayle- seemed to have come out to bat at a charity game where every six and four scored would mean a hefty contribution to a charitable fund. You’ve got to admit, the Indian bowlers showed a big heart too. But none was as giving as Stuart Binny.

When the first ball sailed over deep mid-wicket the eternal Indian hope said, Binny would come back. He did and bowled one a little-too-full, Lewis who was by now seeing the ball like a man on a lifetime diet of carrots, dispatched this one right over his head. Another six! Two in a row! By now Twitter was warming up with all sorts of jokes, some lewd and senseless, but others, worth a chuckle.

But Binny could barely chortle, he ran in and bowled a wide! Gee, despite it all, you felt for him, that was so close to being a well-bowled outside the off-stump ball. The next ball, another six, three in a row! Then four, and then five! Ravi Shastri was on air, a bowler with his initials as S.B. was bowling. Of all the chest-beating cricket records Indian cricket fans hold dear, Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes at Kingsmead is perhaps the dearest. But, that was in danger, grave danger!

A forgettable over from Binny

What are you thinking as a bowler when you have been hit for 5 sixes and you still have to run in and bowl? You are in the place of a student who knows he hasn’t studied enough to pass, but yet attempts the paper. So, Binny runs in, and a full-toss…but, for the first time that morning, God decided to be kind on him. And Lewis who was hitherto hitting the good balls beyond the boundary and the better ones outside the park, missed out on that full-toss! Binny survived, Yuvraj’s record just about survived, India survived.

But, while Binny walked back to his fielding position after finishing that forgettable 32 runs over, question marks were already floating all around. Is he good enough? Twitter trolls were at Photoshopping every image and suggesting replacements for Stuart Binny. It seemed that Stuart Binny might have bowled his last ball and played for one last time in a blue-shirt. So, is Binny closer to the ‘exit’ door? Closer while others knock on the in-door of the Indian team.

Not taking his chances

To be very fair, Binny has had his share of chances, when he stepped on wearing the Indian test-cap at Nottingham against England in 2014 , he scored his career-best score of 78. And when people said this was a batsman who could swing the ball too.

All of India found a hope in him. India’s unending quest for a batsman who bowled quick seemed to have finally been answered. But, like that elusive crush who always gives you hints but never commits, Binny’s form slumped and the answer we all reveled at, seemed incomplete.

When he took 6 wickets for 4 runs to help India defend 105 against Bangladesh and save face, the spark seemed to return, hopes instilled in Binny, again! Those are still the best ever figures by an Indian bowler in the ODIs. But, after that game, Binny played in 13 more ODIs, picking up only 14 more wickets.

His Test numbers seem worse, with only 3 wickets from 6 tests at an average of 86. So, India’s ever elusive search for a batsman who bowls well continues. And like a reality-show, Stuart Binny makes appearances, sometimes to appease, but more often than not, to disappoint.

It’s never fair to write an athlete off. For sport has strange ways of taking you places, and taking you there, quickly. But, fortune has very little to offer there, and whatever little it does, Binny seems to have overdrawn on that front. At 32, with younger and fitter Pandyas, quicker Jadeja and the ever-green Yuvraj, all eyeing that spot, time is running out quicker for Binny than it does on a Sunday evening for an IT employee.

At the moment, he is staring at that door, with OUT written on it in red. A lot of cricketers have made it back into the reckoning from this very place. If he wants to be one of them, he must hustle. The spotlight has shifted elsewhere from Stuart Binny, he must now search for it in the dark, and search quickly.