Gen Next needs to be tested, trusted

Kohli has shown what a bit of faith can achieve

India’s just concluded Test series against Australia has brought the curtains down to a golden era that saw the coming together of some of the finest batsmen in the history of the game.

Not often will you find players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, who combined elegance and steel to conquer some high peaks of batting, in the same line-up.

But now, these titans have to heed the tap of age on their shoulders, and as Indian cricket is ready to welcome a fresh generation – at least in Tests, for many of them have already tasted international cricket through one-dayers and T20s – the time has also come to think of the challenges ahead of their replacements, and the response to their foray into Tests.

Virat Kohli has announced that he’s ready for a long haul in the traditional format, notching up some handy scores at Perth and Adelaide, including his maiden Test hundred. Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara, who has already played Test cricket, are next in line to step into the side, and other candidates like Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane and Abhinav Mukund, who played a couple of Tests in the West Indies and England last year, too will be given an extended look-in in the near future to assess their durability in the cauldron of Test cricket.

Selection policies often do not get much appreciation, but the panel led by Krishnamachari Srikkanth has done a good job in giving Kohli a long rope amidst calls to axe him after failures in the West Indies and in the first two Tests against Australia at Melbourne and Sydney. The Delhi lad repaid their faith with a couple of gritty knocks, and the mandarins need continue the same approach with other young names.

Proving talent at the highest level of any sport is a long process, and it assumes particular significance in the case of this bunch of Indian youngsters because they will be stepping into the shoes of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman, who have achieved some incredible feats over the years.

The public expectations on them to replicate the performances of the outgoing generation also will be higher, and the fans will be eager to see some magical wins like Kolkata (2001) and some monstrous partnerships like in Adelaide three years later, very familiar sights when the trinity was around and at their peak until not so long ago.

It’s a near impossible task to expect an immediate encore, and the selectors should give them ample opportunities to provide proof that they belong at this level. Before Kohli, the selectors adopted a similar policy with Suresh Raina, giving him 15 Tests to stake his claim for the spot left vacant by Sourav Ganguly. However, Raina couldn’t exploit the opportunities – mainly due to his iffy technique against the short-pitched ball that was brutally laid bare in Test cricket – forcing the selectors to turn to Kohli. Raina is certain to come back into reckoning some time soon, but that’s a topic for a different day.

So, the young brigade shouldn’t be under any illusion about their task as there will be
enormous amount of hopes on them, and pressure on the field too will be vastly different from what they have experienced in one-day cricket.

But fortunately for them, the path ahead has already been well defined by a set of extraordinary cricketers, who have shown that hard work and single-minded dedication can fetch awesome rewards. Now, it’s the turn of the young guns to travel the same route to live up to those standards, however difficult a task that might be.

India’s resurgence as a Test nation depends on how successfully these young tyros adopt their peers’ methods. Failures, like Kohli had gone through in the initial days, are bound to come, but we need to be patient with them, and believe in them.