Sport has a very unique way of making a point. Thursday was a prime example. Each one of us is guilty of hyping up the return of stars to domestic cricket. The assumption was that they’d come back, score tons of runs and make it back to the national team. Domestic cricket, we are all guilty of portraying, is a piece of cake. Bowlers are there for the slaughter and stars like Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and others would come and make merry. Tokenism – playing one domestic match is nothing more than that – was deemed the answer to all of India’s batting woes.
Sport, however, had other ideas. It is such a fantastic leveller, and that was yet again on view. Rohit fell to a shot very similar to the one he had played in Melbourne to Pat Cummins, and continued to look bad in red-ball cricket. Yashasvi Jaiswal could consider himself unlucky, for the ball could have missed the stumps and the height was an issue. Gill too was out cheaply, proving yet again that one needs to train especially hard to get success in domestic cricket.
Stalwarts like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who have been playing domestic cricket for a while now, will testify to this. If the national team players are serious enough, let them play more (whenever they get time from national duty), for there is no other way of getting back to form. Scoring runs against the white ball will not translate into red-ball success and if the selectors pick anyone on the basis of white-ball performances, they will yet again be exposed in England in June.
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This is where one has to commend someone like Pujara. He still has the game, and could have been the difference in Australia. Pujara can still blunt the new ball and has the technique to do so. At a time when sports science has added two-three years to every sportsperson’s career span, there is every reason to believe Pujara too can make a comeback. The same can be said of Rahane. Frankly, the only marker to make the team should be performance. Rohit and Virat Kohli are roughly of the same age as Rahane and Pujara and there can’t be a case of double standards. If age is the issue, it should apply to all four of them. If it isn’t, no one should have to pay a price for it.
Going forward, we shouldn’t hype the return of stars to domestic cricket. It is something they should naturally do. In fact, it should be part of their job description and not something they are doing as a favour. For the moment, the focus will be on how Rohit fares in the second innings. Getting out to a good ball is one thing. To give your wicket away is another.
That’s where Rohit needs to be more disciplined. He can’t just make the same mistake over and over again, and expect things to get right on their own. It is the same for Gill. If he is to be India’s No. 3 in England, he needs to do much better than he is at the moment. The truth is that India’s red-ball batting is a serious worry. And England will be watching closely what is going on.
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