The BCCI selection committee has a long history of springing surprises time and again-the whole Sourav Ganguly fiasco is proof enough. And as if it had to live up to its tradition, out of no where, discarded wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel was brought back into the squad for the Tests against Pakistan as a standby for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Though Ganguly’s inclusion made all the headlines, Parthiv’s selection also deserves some pondering upon. After all, he was dropped from international cricket some months back on the pretext that his keeping skills needed plenty of sharpening up before he can be considered for the international level once again.
So do the men who matter think that Parthiv has made the necessary adjustments? Well, there certainly weren’t any talks of that sort prior to the selection for the Pakistan tour. And so his surprise inclusion is bound to raise quite a few eyebrows. The commoner would definitely not be able to comprehend the logic behind the decision. Only the ones closely involved with Indian cricket will know about it.
The issue is that now that he is part of the team will be get a chance to prove whether he’s improved his keeping to the desired level. Unfortunately, his chances are very slim as Dhoni has made the slot his own. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that unless an injury occurs Dhoni will remain the first choice keeper and all Patel would be doing is cooling his heels in the dressing room. Of course there will be some net practice. But how often have we heard cricketers saying that nothing can replace match practice. So wouldn’t it have been better for Parthiv to keep honing his skills in domestic cricket? In the eventuality of an injury, a second wicket-keeper could have easily been flown in.
Knowing the bizarre ways of the Indian selectors, we could very well find Parthiv being shown the door for the next series. It has happened to many players before and we all know how negative an impact it could have on the players. As it is, one feels Parthiv’s early induction into the international did him more harm than good. After all, everybody cannot be a Sachin Tendulkar to succeed at the big the stage at a very tender age.
The youngest wicket-keeper to play Test cricket, Parthiv’s career showed ample of promise in the initial stages. But with time, his incompetence behind the stumps was there for all to see. He first announced himself on the giant stage as a batsmen with a gritty knock of 19* against England at Trent Bridge in his debut Test. More that the number of runs, it was the situation under which it was scored it that impressed one and all. That knock lasting over an hour helped India save the game and they subsequently went on to square the closely contested series 1-1. Parthiv contribution was all the more admirable as he had fallen without scoring in the first innings, his debut knock in Test cricket. Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain cuddling the baby-faced keeper after the completion of the game will remain one of sweetest sights ever witnessed on a cricket field. Parthiv Patel had announced himself on the cricket field and soon, comparisons were being drawn with Tendulkar’s arrival on international scene against Pakistan back in 1989. But it very much turned out to be a case of counting the chickens before they hatch.
What followed in the games to come were innumerable number of missed chances, a whole lot of extras conceded via byes and leg byes and loads and loads of frustration for the bowlers especially the spinners, Kumble & co.
The dilemma for selectors was that even as he was committing what can be termed as elementary blunders behind the stumps, he batting only grew in confidence with every passing game. There was an impressive 62 at Sydney scored at a rather rapid pace against the world champions. That wasn’t all, India’s merry go round with the openers slot meant that Patel had to perform the duties in one of the games against Pakistan during their memorable tour of ’04. But the gritty wicket-keeper took up the challenge and produced a quality knock of 69 against the likes of Shoaib Akhtar and co. But despite his consistency with the will, his flaws behind the wickets were proving just too fatal to be ignored.
And so finally, the selectors had to take the extreme step of relieving Patel from his keeping miseries after the third Test against Australia during the latter’s last visit to India. It was felt the youngster was better of playing domestic cricket for a while and getting his basics right. This after he was blooded into international cricket without having played a single Ranji trophy game- an occurrence which can be described as nothing less than bizarre.
Many past wicket-keeper’s have analysed Patel’s obvious shortcomings and hopefully they would have even helped him to set things right. Although the technical aspects are better dealt with by the experts, for the naked eye, his tendency to get up far too early seemed to be one of his major shortcomings. Also for someone so young and short, his reflexes were far from quicksilver. Everyone concerned was banking on the fact that with time, he would definitely improve. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and, on the contrary, he only seemed to be going from bad to worse.
Now with Dhoni having made such a deadly impact with bat, it would be very difficult for anyone, leave aside Patel to dislodge him from the Indian squad. Poor Dinesh Karthik had done reasonably well with both bat and gloves. But Dhoni’s talent was far too exceptional to be ignored. Add to it, he had backed it up with some huge scores too. Even though Dhoni’s keeping skills too aren’t extraordinary, he’s still the one who seems to commit the least amount of mistakes behind the stumps among the current lot of keepers India have at their disposal.
Despite his chances looking bleak, it has been seen that Patel possesses immense mental strength. This was seen when he faced the best blowers with utmost confidence despite having an awful time behind the stumps. But it would be fair to say that if anyone deserved a spot as replacement keeper, it had to go to Dinesh Karthik. Though Kartik himself had not done too much wrong, the latter’s dropping did create as much uproar as it was one of the rare cases of him being replaced by someone way too talented, at least with the bat. If at all, one could sympathise for the Tamil Nadu stumper.
Even since Mongia’s exclusion, the wicket-kepeer’s slot has been a big bone of contention in Indian cricket. Numerous ones have been tried our for this crucial slot, Dahiya, Dasgupta, Ratra… the list goes on. Some couldn’t perform up to the expected levels while others fell victim to unfair selection policy. Even though Dhoni has performed exceedingly well thus far, his biggest ‘Test’ will come against the likes of Australia and South Africa when India tour abroad.
But if Dhoni continues to perform in the present vein, we could have a situation very similar to one of Warne and MacGill, with the last mentioned preferred only on occasions when the great leggie is either unfit or the pitch demands MacGill’s inclusion. If that’s the case, India will quickly have to workout who their second choice wicket-keeper will be. Australia often have Brad Haddin as their replacement to Adam Gilchrist. And it’s important that India too have a couple of bankable ‘keepers who they could rely in case Dhoni is unfit or needs to be rested. With the Indians playing cricket almost round the year, it’s a matter which definitely has to be looked into. We are all seeing how non-stop cricket has affected Gilchrist lately. And India definitely cannot afford Dhoni to hit a low patch.
Even though the timing of Parthiv’s selection is highly puzzling, now that the selectors have decided to give him another chance, (at least his selection hints so) it will be crucial that he gets an opportunity to prove how much he has refined his keeping instead of dumping him. But will that really happen? The answer will most probably be a big NO. And we really don’t know what will be the eventual fate of Dinesh Karthik.
It was not for no reason that Sunil Gavaskar had once referred to the BCCI as Board of Complete Confusion in India!
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