International flavour, domestic touch

Amit Varma

The inaugural Test between India and Bangladesh is a historic one. For Bangladesh.

At first sight, it may seem significant for India as well; after all, there are going to be at least three young players (Das, Zaheer, Kartik) trying to establish themselves in the Indian side, Laxman finally taking his rightful place in the middle order, and Srinath back after a lengthy break, (hopefully) fresh and raring to go.

A great opportunity, it would seem, except that the match really is a walk in the park for India, and in sport, if it's easy, it's meaningless.

Look at it this way; the match is being played in Dhaka, on pitches not very different from Indian pitches. The Bangladesh Test side is at best as strong as some of the stronger Indian domestic sides; Tamil Nadu vs Bangladesh or Mumbai/Punjab vs Bangladesh would be a more even contest.

And South Zone, with Karnataka's bowlers and the best of Karnataka and TN batsmen, would positively whip them. Which makes this match insignificant for the same reason so much of Indian domestic cricket is meaningless.

Easy flat pitches, average bowling (in most cases), docile conditions; doing well in such conditions is certainly not a reflection of a players capacity to do well in International cricket. We've seen enough cases of Ranji bullies going to the international stage and being found wanting. Why, Ajay Sharma would positively have relished playing against Bangladesh!

Which is great going for the new kids on the block here. (Just as going on the Aussie tour derailed a few promising careers for a while, like Devang Gandhi, Vijay Bhardwaj and Hrishikesh Kanitkar, this would have the opposite impact.)

Das is a fantastic prospect for India, and all he has to do to guarantee himself a couple of more Tests (against Zimbabwe, slurp slurp) would be to put his head down, see through the opening spell, and do what he's done so well for the past three years; accumulate runs efficiently against a second grade bowling attack, on the kind of pitch he's used to.

Of course, he may have only one innings to do this in, given that India's awesome middle order (in these conditions) will probably also take the opportunity to pile it on.

Unless of course, Das doesn't play, because Ganguly wants Karim to open. Karim's inclusion - reportedly on Ganguly's strong recommendation - is baffling. He may well have been unfairly treated in the past, but given his advancing years and given that India has some very good young wicket-keeping talent in the wings (Vijay Dahiya, Reuben Paul, Ajay Ratra), all of whom can bat quite decently, would it not have made much sense to play one of them? Ganguly's parochial sentiments seem to have got in the way here, probably giving his statemate one last chance at some easy pickings.

Especially if he makes Karim open, which would be foolish, but possible, given that India would otherwise be going in with just four bowlers.

Which is another dilemma. If Das and Ramesh open, and Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman follow, with Karim at seven, that leaves four bowling places.

Srinath, Zaheer and Kartik have three of them sewed up, but what about the other one? Prasad or Joshi there? Ganguly might just opt to go with both, ask Karim to open, which keeps Das on hold till Zimbabwe, unless the selectors, as with Wasim Jaffer, decide to try someone else before giving him a fair chance.

(Someone ask Mohammed Kaif about being part of the Indian team and not playing. He's done it plenty in one-dayers, last year in Nairobi when Vijay Bhardawaj got all the matches, this year in Sharjah. Alternative career: Tourist Guide)

Mohammed Kaif's exclusion from the 14 here is also baffling. Here is a classy technically correct batsman with a fabulous temperament to boot, and plenty of domestic performances to back him, and he's not in the team. That takes on added significance with the possibility of Dravid's injury not healing in time for him to play.

That would mean Yuvraj would get a look in, which would not just be messing with the team, but maybe with Yuvraj as well. The Pakistanis kept Shahid Afridi waiting for his first Test till he had played 80 one-dayers, and while it would be unfair to classify Yuvraj as a one-day specialist, he just does not have either the domestic performances, or the proven temperament (if Sharjah was any indication) to be a Test player yet.

('Yet' being very much the operative word here.) In Afridi's case, he hit a stunning hundred in his second match against India, and the waiting, though this is arguable, must surely have helped.

At the end of the day, though, the match doesn't mean anything at all. India's real tests lie abroad, and not in Sharjah, but in Australia, South Africa, even England and West Indies. That is where the wheat-and-the-chaff thing happens, and we go through yet another cycle of chopping and changing, and giving younger players a chance, and all the rest of that.

Anyone who does well here (and against Zimbabwe later) is not necessarily a long term prospect for India, but the flip side of that is that it eases the newcomers very nicely into International cricket, and gives them time to get used to it. Much like throwing lukewarm water on someone before shoving them into the fire!

But that doesn't change the fact that it's still a historic match for Bangladesh. Their first step on a road which may well see them whip India in Sharjah ten years from now. Let's just beat them while we can, and enjoy it while the going is good!

Mail Amit Varma