By -Shubhendra Singh Rajawat
In preparation for the Test series against Australia at the end of this year, Sunil Gavaskar has made a sincere appeal to Team India and its skipper, Rohit Sharma.
India should be celebrating their victory against South Africa in Cape Town and feeling happy that they survived a scare. Anything might have happened given the way the Newlands pitch performed during the course of the four sessions over the course of two days. Everything was possible on that hot Newlands surface: if South Africa could be bowled out for their lowest Test total after readmission of 55, India could lose six wickets for zero runs, and if 33 wickets fell in the first three hours of Day 2 to make this the shortest Test match in history, then nothing was out of the question.
India must learn a few lessons from their 1-1 draw in the series, the most important being their batting order’s propensity to collapse under pressure. India was soundly defeated in the first Test at Centurion. While certain players, including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and a few others, were already in South Africa from playing T20Is and ODIs, others were playing their first match of the tour. And although Bumrah and Kohli were impressive, Rohit was subpar across all four innings.
The late great Sunil Gavaskar has advised the India captain and the team management to schedule a few practise matches whenever they travel to Southeast Asia to stop this downward trend. India’s 2024 Test cricket season is scheduled to be hectic, with a four-Test series in Australia that will feature the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as the year’s finale. Sunny G has emphasized the value of practise matches for India in order to prevent batting collapses and give their bowlers much-needed time to adjust to the circumstances.
“Indian teams visiting SENA countries typically lose the opening Test of the series and then have to play catch-up for the rest of the series, which is essentially the pattern set by the Centurion defeat. The next major series abroad is in Australia in exactly a year, so preparations need to begin right now if India is to maintain the winning form from its last two tours there. In his piece for Sportstar, Gavaskar stated, “The FTP suggests that India is playing two Tests against Bangladesh and three Tests against New Zealand at home from the end of September to early November.”
The Indian team will have ample opportunity to play a few, if not several, first-class games prior to the series, as the first Test of a five-match series in Australia is scheduled to begin in early December. Following the defeat in Centurion, Rohit declared that these matches are meaningless since the host nations field inferior squads and have to play on slow pitches. Even if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be preferable to establish a rhythm in the face of such resistance than to remain home? The bowlers have the opportunity to challenge themselves and go all out in addition to the batsmen who can score some runs.”
Gavaskar’s ideal strategy for the Indian team
As the former India skipper pointed out, a troubling pattern has arisen. India landed in England for the World Test Championship final versus New Zealand in Southampton in 2021, only to lose in three days. The following year saw a return to Birmingham for the rescheduled fifth Test against England, which resulted in yet another convincing defeat. In fact, the Indian squad, fresh off the IPL, arrived at The Oval last year to face Australia in the second WTC final. The outcome stayed unaltered once more.
India had no warm-up or practice matches for all three of these games, forcing them to play catch-up. With the Australia Test set to begin in the first or second week of December, Gavaskar has everything planned out for how the BCCI and Team India can make the most of the schedule whenever it is released.
“With the relations between the two boards being good, it would make sense if the Indian cricket board wrote to its counterpart and asked for matches against their national champions or the ‘A’ team before the first Test,” Gavaskar said.
“Then, in the week or so between the second and third Tests, and the fourth and fifth Tests, there could be another game to give the reserve players a chance to shine.” Those who did not get wickets or tons in the previous Tests will have an opportunity to regain their form and rhythm for the upcoming Tests. The time has passed to give in to what the seniors demand, because there has been no positive outcome. It’s time to think about what’s best for Indian cricket, not what’s best for a few people, no matter how wonderful they are.”