Where are the Openers ?? What next..

Its been a while I took to blogging something on cricket, and well its been a while India lost a Test match so badly that people and fans alike are raising eyebrows and dabbling with solutions. After all, for a Cricket crazy nation like India, everyone seems to have a solution. 

India missed a trick by not taking a rookie opener on the English tour. I see a lack of planning here. I know that before the tour Murali Vijay was the automatic choice for the first opener slot. But he is not getting younger. He is 34. Dilip Vengsarkar retired at that age !! Now, I am not saying Vijay should think of retirement..he has been our bulwark at the top for a while now. People like him and Pujara are a necessity in the test side, where the idea in overseas conditions is to survive and allow the strokeplaying batsmen to take the game away from the opposition when the bowlers are seemingly tired. They are like Insurance Policies..It is precisely this reason Sachin Tendulkar was always shielded at No 4 or No 5, and strokemakers Ganguly and Laxman batted at 5 or 6, behind a Rahul THE WIDE WALL Dravid. The problem is not the middle order where i guess there would be some changes in a Pant or Nair. We ought to have taken an understudy to Vijay to the English tour. Perhaps a Prithvi Shaw or a Mayank Agarwal or even domestic run machines like Priyank Panchal or Faiz Fazal. Maybe a keen eye for talent would have also proposed a Abhimanyu Ranganathanparmashwaran Easwaran, A Easwaran in short. I am not such a big fan of technique in English conditions, yes it is important, but I guess it requires more grit to survive. The idea of a Dhawan and Vijay combination was ticking all the boxes: Left - Right combination, Dhawan could attack and Vijay could defend for long hours. But Dhawan perhaps started defending too much and Vijay was perhaps asked to play more balls. I guess, Vijay's success in the past hinged on how well he left rather on how well he played. He is fishing more now, showing more intent on scoring, and look at his scores now. Its a paradox. The most naive suggestion I could give Vijay today is to watch the ball and leave or let it go.  There is a hungry Kohli waiting in the pavilion to make up for the lost time (i hope he is fit for the Trent Bridge Test, and decides to play)

So well you might ask, what is the solution then? The worst solution could be to shove Pujara at the top, or drop Vijay. The best solution could be to ask the Top 3 to shoulder more responsibility, and perhaps an absent Kohli due to injury might just have this side effect, that is if Kohli decides to rest himself  at Trent Bridge (owing to a back strain). 

Contrary to media commentary, I feel the team is well oiled and perhaps still left with a lot of self belief in the tank. All is not lost, bring it on...the team must be saying to themselves !! After all, India is the No. 1 Test side, and you got to have it in you to have reached there at the first place. Kohli or no Kohli, the side can still pack a mean punch. Amen !