Atop Test cricket peak

There is a good reason for the purists to be delighted with Team India’s Test performances in the recent past in which it has won four series, including series in Sri Lanka and in the Caribbean. With Tests liberally dotting the schedule with 10 more to be played at home this season alone after the series of three against New Zealand just concluded, India is seen to be doing a lot to keep Test cricket alive. And yet it won’t be long before the country starts pining for better performances in the more popular formats of the game. Team India players are barely out of their “flannels” before they are slipping on the colour jerseys to play the Kiwis in limited-overs cricket. The flamboyant but under-performing ODI skipper M.S. Dhoni will be back at the helm in his team now only the fourth rated in the world, which indicates accurately the declining form since the defeat in the semi-finals of the World Cup of 2015.

With three formats, modern cricket is more demanding and the Indian team’s future might lie with giving the job fully over to the young captain rather than sticking to Dhoni in steadfast allegiance to his past glories. Beyond the desired change in captaincy, a young Indian team has also to toughen up considerably if it is to recapture the form of old in the limited-overs formats. The aficionados may point to supremacy in Tests being satisfactory enough, but there too India would have to prove capable of beating tougher opposition in countries like Australia and South Africa before it can lay claim to genuine top ranking as very few points separate the top teams now. A point to ponder, however, is the national team is doing well enough on the field even as the BCCI faces its worst crisis in the top court of the land.