Horses for courses
The recall of Harbhajan Singh is not the most forward-looking reform of the Indian Test team that had totally lost its way in the last couple of seasons. But, when it comes to bowling against the Australians, the Sardar of Spin may still have a few tricks up his worn-out sleeve. His recall indicates skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s obsession with designing turning pitches to hoodwink visitors appears intact even if in the most recent outing his team was hoisted by its own petard.
The Australians may not play spin on Indian pitches as well as the Englishmen did. Even so, to depend on unidimensional skills when India’s young pace bowlers are doing reasonably well would suggest that Team India is looking desperately for a series win to recover a vestige of the reputation lost in the great slide from the top ranking in Tests soon after the high of a World Cup win in 2011.
A senior axed on the performance count is opening batsman Gautam Gambhir. It would only be fair to say he was just one of the culprits among the many, including Sachin Tendulkar, who were undone by English spin in Mumbai and reverse swing in Kolkata. The selectors’ record in calling upon youngsters to take up slots vacated by the greats of the game has been quite patchy. They are once again resorting to very conservative methods in trying to rebuild the Test side despite Dhoni’s men having lost as many as 10 Tests between July 2011 and now.
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