The great Indian selection muddle - On repeat mode in overseas conditions

You say one thing, you look away, someone else says something else, you look back, no one believes you. You are blurting something else. This is the story of the Indian dressing room at the moment. There is confusion, a sense of hara-kiri and there is a misrepresentation.

It is hard enough to win a series in overseas conditions, and India, for all their talk of improvements and panache, have struggled. Yes, the players picked have frittered away starts, but the question marks begin when the players were picked up in the 1st place.

Back in South Africa, against a top-notch pace attack, on lively surfaces, India dropped Ajinkya Rahane, the vice-captain. How did it impact the form of Rahane ever since will never be known, but the batsman has not looked the same. He came back in the final Test in Johannesburg and flayed the bowling attack, a match-winning innings, a statement directed towards the management.

Had the team management learnt its lessons? We thought yes, they screamed out no. On surfaces which were doing all sorts, Cheteshwar Pujara, India’s blocker at number 3 was axed in the first Test in England. And then, played two frontline spinners on a ‘treacherous’ track which assisted the fast bowlers at Lord’s, forcing Ashwin, who was half-fit to play in Southampton, and then finally not picking a spinner in Perth, where Nathan Lyon was declared the Man of the Match.

What is wrong, who is making the decisions, who is being held accountable?

Shastri and Kohli are boisterous and they have tried to defend their decision-making, but so many errors in one year clearly paint an entirely different picture.

“We have been seeing this, the selection blunders that have been committed since the tour of South Africa. It has cost the team because it has lost matches which could’ve been won if the proper selection had been made,” Gavaskar told Aaj Tak after the second Test and he could not have hit the nail on the head any harder.

In one of the press conferences during this tour, captain Kohli had said: “We need to strike a decent balance. When the situation is against us how to control it better and how to find a way out of it rather than wanting to get out of it immediately.”

So, when Umesh Yadav was played at Perth, where did this balance go. Umesh, who was brilliant against Windies in the home series, was given a go-ahead and he conceded runs at 3.39 and 4.35 runs per over. Australia galloped away unscathed in the first innings, and that is where India lost the series. Where is the balance Kohli and Shastri keep harping upon?

It is a sign of a confident team when they stick with their decisions, but India and their decision-making are shaky at best. The long tail, which gets blown away in a heartbeat, continues to frustrate. The tendency to leak runs with the new ball surfaces time and again, giving mixed signals to batsmen as far as their positions are concerned, does not reflect a settled unit. It carries on… and then some more.

After a series of low scores, they have now axed KL Rahul and Murali Vijay. Mayank Agarwal will get a go, Hanuma Vihari will accompany him.

“Vihari is not a long-term option, he will be given chances if he fails as an opener,” chief selector MSK Prasad told after the team was announced.

He also said that Ravindra Jadeja was 100 per cent fit when picked for the tour. Somewhere Ravi Shastri might be thinking, ‘what did I say about him’. But it is such a familiar picture about this Indian management and their statements, that it is not even disconcerting now!

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