Column

The repeated failures of a middle order studded with the Fab Four raises the question: Is this India's best cricket team?

'Unbelievable', exclaimed a commentator, when India's experienced middle order of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman collapsed for the third time in as many innings against the Sri Lankans.

This might have been a reasonable reaction four years ago, but today there's nothing unbelievable about it. The more accurate adjective for an Indian middle order batting collapse these days, after two innings defeats on sub-continental pitches this year, is 'predictable'.

If the contrast between the Fab Four and the rest was brought out in the first Test by India's pathetic 223 followed by 138 on a pitch on which the Lankans amassed 600 for 6, it became starker in Galle by the ease with which Sehwag (201 not out) and to some extent Gambhir (56) handled the Lankan bowlers and the inability of the middle order to muster even 50 runs between them in virtually identical conditions against the same attack.

Somebody had the gall to suggest the pitch might have changed character after a shower, forgetting how Sehwag continued on his merry way after the break. The first Test fiasco also brought the suggestion that things would improve after getting to spend some time in Lankan conditions, but obviously that is yet to happen. This desperate search for an explanation after each Fab Flop usually misses the obvious - that the four of them are struggling for form and fitness, and that any dramatic and sustained turnaround in their performance is unlikely at this stage of their careers.

Where Sehwag skipped down the track to both Murali and Mendis from time to time to counter their flight, as well as keep them guessing, Dravid and Co. have been rooted to their crease, lacking the very agility and nimbleness of foot that had once made them such good players of spin. The quickness of reflex that allowed Sehwag to play back even to the sharply spinning off-spin from Murali pitched on a good length is also something you see less of from the Fab Four now.

But the biggest difference of all between them and Sehwag has been in the level of confidence they have shown so far.
Sehwag saved the best example of his belief in his own ability to tackle the Lankan bowlers for the penultimate over of the Indian first innings. Batting on 199, with only eleventh man Ishant Sharma for company at the non-striker's end, he played the third ball of Murali's over to a vacant point position and refused the easy single on offer.

The team's cause required him to farm the strike, and he waited for the last ball of the over which he flicked for a single off his pads to get to his double century. Apart from the selflessness in putting the team above his personal milestone, what was remarkable was his cock-sureness that he would get that single later in the over. It is just that kind of self-belief which allowed Tendulkar to tonk Shane Warne off the rough to all parts of the ground on a turning Chennai pitch, but that was many years ago.

It is of course possible that one or more of the Fab Four will eventually come good in this series, but the question the selectors need to ask themselves is whether the occasional success justifies continuing with all four middle order batsmen who are getting into middle age. It is also possible that their replacements, from among Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Robin Uthappa and Badrinath, will also struggle against quality spin and pace, but at the very least the experience would stand them and the team in good stead in the quest to build a strong team for the future.

On the other hand, given the exploits of the young brigade in the T20 World Cup and Down Under, it is also not so far-fetched to imagine that a rejuvenated Test side with MS Dhoni at the helm will start outperforming the current lot from the word go. Yes, they lost the Asia Cup final, but they did beat Pakistan to the final. Yes, they lost to Pakistan in the tri-series final in Dhaka, but with the consolation of having thrashed them earlier in the qualifying stage.

The theory that you should have a more experienced Test side, while confining the upcoming talent to the limited overs formats, has little basis. The only batsman I can think of who thrived in one-day cricket but failed in the longer version of the game was Michael Bevan. He was a master at working the singles and two's in a defensive field setting, and usually got caught out in Test cricket with the slips in place and bowlers in attack mode. But the exception only proves the rule.

So if Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman are no longer considered good enough to get into the Indian one-day and T20 sides, perhaps they should make way for new talent in the Test team too. Before the start of the current series in Sri Lanka, India's coach Gary Kirsten and captain Anil Kumble had expressed confidence that their experienced Test batsmen would fare much better against the rookie spinner with the carom ball, Ajantha Mendis, than their one-day counterparts had done in the Asia Cup final.

They said the main threats would continue to be Murali and Vaas. That confidence and perception have both proven misplaced so far. But even if there is a turnaround in the fortunes of the Fab Four in this series, at least one or two places in the middle order should be opened up to groom new talent. Isn't it ironic that India is unwilling to let even one of its four ageing batsmen go, while tiny Sri Lanka can afford to leave out Sanath Jayasuriya, who incidentally outperformed the Fab Four by a long shot in the IPL?
c_sumit@dnaindia.net