Top five roles that are not relevant anymore in present day Test cricket

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely that of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of Sportskeeda.

After witnessing a lot of cricket on the International arena in the last few months, I have found some interesting facts. In the present day Test cricket teams’ lineups, there are some departments that really are going useless. Here, I made an attempt to present a list of the top five useless jobs in present day Test cricket. And interestingly, three of the nominees are from present day Indian Test cricket team line-up.

Indian seamers

It is pretty obvious that this job would definitely top the list. A small dig in the recent past – like the India versus England series or the Test that ended yesterday, revealed not a single session where the Indian seamers were effective. They miserably failed to create any impact on the opposition’s batting line-up, be it the experienced Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, or the new faces, Vinay Kumar and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. Considering the level of opposition, the series wins over New Zealand and West Indies were quite obvious. In the Test match that ended yesterday, James Pattinson, who is not half as experienced as our spearhead Ishant Sharma, for four times, broke through the Indian batsmen’s defense and shattered their stumps. Ishant Sharma was nowhere near him. He was found chilling, cooling his heels at third man. The Indian pacers should, as soon as possible, realize that seam bowling is not only about the pace, but also the line and length as well as consistency. One should not get surprised if a day comes in Indian Test cricket when the bowling line up consists of four specialist spinners and Dhoni and Kohli as the only seamers (because I can’t call them as spinners).

Australian spinners

The team that once upon a time had the likes of greats like Shane Warne and Stuart McGill in the spin department has slipped down the ladder in recent times in the spin category. And this was once again proved in the first Test in Chennai between India and Australia. A close look at the previous encounters in Tests between the two teams would reveal that Indian spinners have had an upper hand against their Aussie counterparts. But, still, there are times in the past when the Aussie spinners competed and performed on par with Indian spinners and sometimes, they out played them too. But, the present Aussie spin department, with the likes of Jason Krejza and Nathan Lyon, does not present an optimistic picture for the future of Cricket Australia. In the first Test between India and Australia too, where all the twenty wickets of Australian batsmen were bagged by Indian spinners, Aussie spinner Nathan Lyon (who replaced Jason Krejza as he gave away 200 runs in an innings) failed to make any impact on the Indian batting line up (with the exceptional beauty that bowled Sachin Tendulkar out), and gave away a flood of runs (215) in the first innings. Dhoni was just toying around with Lyon throughout his innings. Dhoni made Lyon’s bowling look like he could bat blindfolded and still hit the ball out of the ground. Maybe, in Australian cricket too, there may come a day, when the bowling line up consists of all pacers and the specialist spinners being Michael Clarke and David Warner.

Indian openers

For a long time in Indian cricket, Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan were considered India’s best opening pair to have played Test cricket, till the arrival of Virendra Sehwag – Gautam Gambhir in 2005. These were considered as a perfect opening pair, with Sehwag shattering the opposition’s bowling attack with his aggressive and dynamic style of batting, while Gauti, with a cool and calm attitude, rotated the strike with ease. And the contribution of this pair in India, once reaching the number one Test spot, was too good to be overlooked. But in the recent past, things have started going extremely wrong. While Sehwag’s stumps were getting shattered owing to his lack of technique and footwork, Gambhir still could not leave his habit of fishing for balls going outside the off stump. A team is as strong as its weakest link. And in the present situation for India, there is no point weaker than the opening pair. The team has already slipped down to fifth position in Tests due to the poor starts given by the openers. In recent days, it is satirically said that, “what did an Indian fan miss when he went to bathroom? Indian openers!” Though the selectors made a good decision picking up Murali Vijay and Shikar Dhawan ahead of Gambhir for the series against Australia, though the team registered an easy win in the first Test, the opening pair problem is still haunting the Indian team. I think the time has come for the Indian selectors to stop considering reputation over form. Players like Wasim Jaffer, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane should be given ample chances to prove themselves.

Pakistan middle order

Though the issue of lack of good quality batting in the Pakistan team is not a new one, the present situation is really alarming. They were defeated, thrashed, demoralized and demolished by South Africa in the ongoing Test series due to their inept batting skills. They did have some legends like Mohammed Haneef, Javed Miandad, Inzamam, Mohammed Yousuf, Saeed Anwar, Younis Khan, etc in their batting lineup, but never had any of them together for a longer duration of time. The last time they had a really good middle order was when Inzamam, Yousuf, Malik and Younis played together, and that was a long time ago! And the present Pakistani team’s middle order is nowhere compared to these greats. Younus Khan, the senior most player in the present Pakistani team, should use his experience and show intense determination and guts to be a role model to the upcoming youngsters. Scoring 400+ in an innings all the time may be a difficult task for any team, but posting 250+ is totally feasible. I think it is time for the Pakistan Cricket Board to start a long term strategy to search for technically sound young talent, groom them well and present them on the international arena.

Indian coach

The present coach of team India, Duncan Fletcher, who took over as Gary Kirsten’s successor after India won the ICC World Cup 2011, has maintained strict silence throughout his tenure. Generally, it is the responsibility of either the captain or coach to talk to the media before and after a match. But there are only a small number of occasions where one could find Fletcher having a conversation with media representatives. There is no exaggeration in saying that he does not know even the names of some Indian cricketers and there is something called Ranji cricket played in India. Putting Ranji cricket apart, he was found absent for some of the games in the recently concluded India-England series. A fan of Indian cricket sometimes gets the doubt if a coach really exists for Team India. The situation seems like he completely failed to develop any personal communication with the Indian cricketers. I agree to the fact that, whether it is a Test or a World Cup final match, it is the players who win or lose it, not the coach. He is, at best, a medium that can ease the things required for keeping the team on a winning track. But it is his responsibility to bring the best out of the talent and maintain a healthy rapport with the team, the board and the media. Looks like Duncan Fletcher has never done these things on a perfect note. Finally, I think the time has come for BCCI to go for an Indian coach, maybe Saurav Ganguly or Anil Kumble, to bring back the former grandeur to Team India.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are solely that of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of Sportskeeda.