The perfect batting strip at Ahmedabad could have been played on for over a week and still not given a result. If there was little in it for seam bowlers after the first hour — during which India lost a flurry of wickets — the spinners, too, did not find the bite required to hurry batsmen or induce wrong shots. Agreed, that in the days of falling attendances in Tests, it is not the best advertisement for the longest and purest form of the game. But in a series that is bound to see more engrossing moments, have India started on the right note? Whatever the conditions, the team was, after all, left playing to save the match.
Former India all-rounder Kirti Azad is least impressed at the way the home series has commenced. “I just did not see the hunger an international side needs to show. Our players are talented but they just do not look keen to do their best,” says the former selector, who does not go with the view that Indian batsmen batted on a juicy wicket early on and thus started with a disadvantage.
“If it was such a good batting pitch, why were our batsmen not so confident? It is not just the matter of losing some quick wickets, it is about getting big scores once you are settled, like Rahul Dravid showed,” says Azad.
“Yuvraj Singh should have converted his half-century into a real big score on such a pitch even though he did contribute in that partnership with Dravid. It is that kind of intent and consistency that is needed from players in Test matches,” adds Azad.
Even as the Indian team think-tank contemplates tinkering with the bowling attack, probably unsure whether trying left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha would prove fruitful, Azad avers the Ahmedabad Test was just the kind of match in which champion spinner Anil Kumble would have taken it on himself as a challenge. “Right through his career, people criticised Kumble for not turning the ball enough. But despite his limitations, he went down in the annals as one of the best in the game. I am sure he would have found ways to get wickets even in Ahmedabad, whereas the spin attack (Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra) did not seem to have ideas,” feels Azad.
“I am also disappointed at the way Ishant (Sharma) has been bowling. Zaheer (Khan), too, needs to be doing better in the series,” adds Azad, who was a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team.
Madan Lal, too, feels India could have done better in the first Test. “There was no doubting the fact that there was little in the pitch for bowlers, but still the team did not seem to be trying enough at some points in time,” feels the former India coach and selector. “I think the others in the team need to learn a thing or two from Sachin (Tendulkar), who has an insatiable hunger. In the end, it took a century from him to save the match,” he adds.
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