Surfeit of Test cricket in the coming weeks
 It will be a surfeit of Test cricket in the coming weeks with Sri
Lanka playing New Zealand at home, Australia confronting South Africa in
Aussie land and India hosting England. First to the home series where
Sri Lanka and New Zealand will indulge in an exercise of futility, just
playing Two Tests, with Australia and South Africa playing Three, and
India and England playing Four Tests. The Cricket Boards of Australia
and South Africa and India and England have batted more sensibly as the
playing of Three and Four Tests indicate. Why Sri Lanka and New Zealand
could not have done similarly, defies understanding. New Zealand under
the leadership of the consistent scoring Ross Taylor, who also has a
clever cricketing brain, will not be easy prey for the win hungry Lankan
Lions led by the best captain in world cricket today, the mercurial
Mahela Jayewardene.
Experienced hands
The Kiwis have in their luggage some experienced hands in the
skipper, the McCallum brothers - Brendon and Nathan, Jacob Oram, James
Franklin and Tim Southee to show and tell the youngsters how.
In addition the obtaining of former Sri Lanka swing and seam ace,
left arm bowler Chaminda Vaas to assist Shane Bond is the best thing to
happen to Kiwi cricket. It is said that a prophet is not without honour
other than in his own country and Vaas foots the bill.
It would be appropriate to recall the injustice and insult slapped on
Vaas when Sri Lanka took him to India for the 2011 World Cup and then
when the scene was set for him to play that would have made a big
difference, he was ingloriously benched. Since then he has been lost to
Sri Lanka cricket.
The Lankans will be looking to clean sweep the Kiwis and better their
Test record. They have the men who can deliver and an interesting
series, provided the rain that has been falling inbuckets takes a break.
Indians fuming
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Indian tigers must be fuming, hungry and
gritting their teeth to devour the England lions after the mauling the
Indians suffered being slapped a four-nil defeat in England.
England arrived in India exuding confidence under new skipper
Alastair Cook. The good thing that happened to their cricket was the
recalling of that punishing batsman Kevin Pietersen after some
unnecessary wrangling.
England dominated in seaming conditions at home, and India knowing
England’s weakness against spin, will fire spin, possibly opening the
attack too with spin to have the opposing batsmen in a tangle.
Preparing spin pitches
And skipper Dhoni gave indications by urging the curators to prepare
spin favouring pitches. Although not making it obvious, it is an
unwritten practice where home curators make pitches to suit their
bowlers.
And with excellent tweakers in Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh
and Pragyan Ojha to tease and torment the England batsmen who are weak
against top class spin, spin friendly wickets will be the rule rather
than the exception. England will be looking to bother the Indian batsmen
with the pace of Steven Finn, James Anderson and Stuart Broad. The trio
proved unplayable in the seaming conditions in England.
But in spin pitches in India, however much the three seamers bend
their backs, they will prove innocuous. The only spinner they have who
could trouble the Indian batsmen is off spinner Graeme Swann. But the
Indian batsmen are masters at playing spin.
Chockfull of interest
While the Four-Test series will be chockfull of interest, the
cynosure of all eyes will be the master class batsman Sachin Ramesh
Tendulkar. The question on the minds of millions of Tendulkar fans will
be: Will this series be the end of the line for this master batting
craftsman?
Knowing Tendulkar and his ability to bounce back and hit hard at his
detractors, this brain teasing question can be answered only after the
series. With age caching up – now he is on his 40th year – the reflexes
must be slowing down and although his mind must be willing, his body
might not be as ready. But being a cricketing genius, his determination
could help him turn things around.
Repeated failures
Questions about his future were being asked after his repeated
failures against New Zealand where he ran into a run drought. But since
he has had a good rest, he may well maul the English bowlers having
recharged his batteries. A few years back when Tendulkar was failing to
get amongst the runs, some of Tendulkar’s critics including former
stormy petrel and captain of Australia who always loved to get embroiled
in controversy Ian Chappell wrote that Tendulkar should quit, before
someone does it for him. Tendulkar made Chappell red in the face and
made him eat his own words by making his bat talk by getting back into
his usual big run making habit —-scoring heavily in the series that
followed.
No selector will dare
And his destiny is in his own hands. Unless he calls it a day, no
Indian selector, leave alone suggesting to him about retirement, would
dare drop him. To do so would not only earn the wrath of his fans.
But Tendulkar need not be told that all good things must come to an
end. It is obvious that his reflexes are slowing. He is not superhuman.
Many promising youngsters are knocking on the door and breathing down
his neck. Former India greats whose names are too numerous to mention,
and who thought they were indispensible, had to finally answer the call
from the cricketing gods and quit.
Star will disappear
If and when the big man decides to quit, a star that shone like a
beacon will disappear from the cricketing firmament and a pall of gloom
will descend not only in the Indian cricket scene, but also the world
scene.
So it will be of more than ordinary interest to see how Tendulkar
will ride the pressure and also the challenge. If he fails he might not
wait for the Aussie series but make a call.
Blockbuster ‘down under’
It will be another blockbuster of a series when the number one high
riding Test team, South Africa led by the experienced Graeme Smith faces
the hopping for success kangaroos led by Michael ‘pup’ Clarke.
While the Proteas will be fighting to maintain their hard won number
one position in Test cricket, the Aussies will be playing from out of
their skins to maintain their ascendancy in Test cricket after a few
hiccups.
In this series of special interest will be the form of former Aussie
captain and champion batsman Ricky ‘punter’ Pointing. Ponting who quit
the limited over formats to concentrate on the established game, has hit
early form in the local format. Reports have it that he is back to his
old form with his signature shots, the footwork and the timing of old
returning. A shot that signals that he is back in form is his pet shot
the ‘on drive’. Once the series begin his form will tell. So cricket
fans will be busy, keeping themselves glued to the TVs, Radio and
Newspapers wanting to take in the thrill-a-minute action once these
three series begin.
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