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After Sachin, the deluge??

Sir Alex

Banned
Well sadly, that's the way our guys seem to be thinking atleast with Indian cricket.

Ok, I know people used to say samething when Sunny retired, but then India were really never a formidable test team then, really we had nothing much to lose.

But situation is much different. We have become number one test team, and while that's an incredible achievement, the batting part of it has been solely due to a bunch of 35 plus guys and one 31 year old at the top.

And we know these guys aren't going to be there forever. Actually with Sachin, and Dravid, this itself seems to be bonus years they've obliged to give to Indian cricket, and hence has admirably prevented exposing our soft batting underbelly in the process.

But I think it's just bought out time before the inevitable happens. We seem to be content with gimmicks like scheduling more test matches to prove our commitment to the longer version of the game. While they're indeed great, they are short sighted. What are we doing to ensure that there will be a bunch atleast to take the baton when the terrific trio go? Surely Sehwag will no longer be 'young' and if it's going to be guys like Yuvraj and Raina, then Indian test cricket is headed for dark ages.

I know names like Vijay and Sharma are thrown up. While I do agree Vijay is exciting, and probably would've matured enough to assume full time responsibilities in a year or two, the likes of Sharma aren't even in the reckoning of selectors.

Badri, for all the hype, has not been able to take his domestic form to International level, and he won't be exactly young either when the present trio hang up their boots.

Where is the next batting superstar? Where is our next 'core'?

Sehwag, Gambir and Vijay? With Yuvraj, Raina and Sharma? And a stopgap in Badri?

Might as well stop watching cricket tbh, rather than enduring these guys pawned abroad.
 

Noble One

International Vice-Captain
Touch early to write Badrinath off yet? You don't dominate First Class cricket for close to a decade only to be discarded after two below par Tests.

He is younger than when Michael Hussey made his debut, and Australia have gained 50 great Tests from him. Not suggesting Badrinath is the next Hussey, but he has had a similar career progression, and has the weight of runs behind him.
 

Debris

International 12th Man
You would think that at least a couple of those guys will stand up when the extra responsibility is pushed on to them. No need for panic stations yet. India's bowling looks more of a concern than the batting.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
Touch early to write Badrinath off yet? You don't dominate First Class cricket for close to a decade only to be discarded after two below par Tests.

He is younger than when Michael Hussey made his debut, and Australia have gained 50 great Tests from him. Not suggesting Badrinath is the next Hussey, but he has had a similar career progression, and has the weight of runs behind him.
Yes, but he is not going to be regular anytime soon, and by the time he becomes, his time might have passed already.

Besides How many Husseys have we really witnessed in last 30 years? He too was great for about 20 tests (when Aus were facing much inferior attacks on own soil) and once they started touring massively went out of form.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
You would think that at least a couple of those guys will stand up when the extra responsibility is pushed on to them. No need for panic stations yet. India's bowling looks more of a concern than the batting.
We've never really been great in bowling department. Actually I think we perhaps have the most promising pace contingent in Ishant, Sreesanth and Mishy for spin. Bhajji is only entering his peak years, and Zak will be around too for some time. Not really worried about bowling. We surely can't do worse than we have been anyway. :)
 

chicane

State Captain
If we were to look and say where high quality talent is coming and where it isn't, the batting looks pretty good. The pace bowling is far more of a worry. Plenty of talented batsmen scoring heavily in domestic cricket, some have even made the step up in international limted overs.

Anyway, it's guesswork. I never expected Sehwag to become what he is.
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Dhoni is an incredibly talented and dedicated batsman and though he's not pretty to look at, is bloody effective.

Gambhir looks to be a stellar Test Batsman and has scored tons of runs since his debut, though he seems to have problems against the rising ball and quality pace.

Sehwag is well....Sehwag!

Sachin MIGHT stay around for 3-4 years and that would be a massive blessing to the Indian Team if he does.

We do have to find 2-3 new Batsmen as replacements for Laxman/Dravid/SRT but really, the situation isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
Dhoni is an incredibly talented and dedicated batsman and though he's not pretty to look at, is bloody effective.

Gambhir looks to be a stellar Test Batsman and has scored tons of runs since his debut, though he seems to have problems against the rising ball and quality pace.

Sehwag is well....Sehwag!

Sachin MIGHT stay around for 3-4 years and that would be a massive blessing to the Indian Team if he does.

We do have to find 2-3 new Batsmen as replacements for Laxman/Dravid/SRT but really, the situation isn't as bad as you make it out to be.
I didn't ray anything contrary to the above, but missed out Dhoni who will still average around 40.

1. So you're basically suggesting a 34-35 year old Sehwag and Gambir will be the answer to our problems?

2. We've been talking about replacing the trio since 05, but still nobody really has stepped up except Gambir. Do you expect 3-4 players to emerge in the next 2-3 years to fill their gap?

3. The fact that we still can't find anyone other than Yuvraj to fill in for Ganguly is an indicator of the state of our reserves isn't it?
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
IMO, When the Older batsmen retire, Dhoni can convert himself into a stable middle order batsmen rather than a late-order hitter or a Saviour when the wickets are down.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
Interesting. But I still don't think he has the game to average above 45 at any point in his career. At no.6 or 7 that is perfectly acceptable also.

I hope I am proven wrong though. He definitely has the willingness to do the grind, but sometimes goes into a shell. That can paralyse the scoring rates as well.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Let's judge our young batsman when they've barely had a chance to play test cricket. Awesome.
 

masterblaster

International Captain
Let's judge our young batsman when they've barely had a chance to play test cricket. Awesome.
That sounds like a great idea! I think we'll be fine. We have only just become the number one test team in the world and Sachin's been playing for the last 20 years! It takes more than just Sachin Tendulkar to be the number one side in the world.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
That sounds like a great idea! I think we'll be fine. We have only just become the number one test team in the world and Sachin's been playing for the last 20 years! It takes more than just Sachin Tendulkar to be the number one side in the world.
Ha ha way to miss the point.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
Let's judge our young batsman when they've barely had a chance to play test cricket. Awesome.
So the only way to test them is to let them fail at test level? Not sure about that.

My point is, we should start doing like what England is doing with their English Lions. Form our core A team and make them tour England, Aus, NZ, SA, etc.

From what I gather, either this isn't happening, or it is not carried out properly, because the likes of Vijay, Yuvraj etc who are our immediate test replacements, haven't played any such game yet.
 

pasag

RTDAS
I'm sure India will go through a similar transitional stage as we have and as long as selectors (and fans) understand that they should be fine.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
I'm sure India will go through a similar transitional stage as we have and as long as selectors (and fans) understand that they should be fine.
But then you had a reasonably sound core in Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, and Katich all of whom had already eased themselves into the test side well before the retirements started.

Imagine if god forbid, Sachin, Dravid and Lax announces their retirement. All of them are perfectly in what is considered 'twilight zone' of their careers so not just form, but health reasons could also contribute to that call.

Now, how'd you replace them? Whom will you call up?

Suddenly our batting cupboard looks empty. And this is not even an unforeseen kind of emergency.

We should've faced this issue 2 or 3 years back but somehow Dravid and Sachin have managed to catch a second wind. But the cupboard doesn't look any better than what it looked 3 years back.

Ideally we should be having players capable of keeping the seniors on their toes, breathing down their necks. This need not be the case, but atleast we should have a test batting second XI capable of atleast doing justice to the test caps they might earn.
 
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Himannv

International Coach
Well I dont think India are by any means short of batsmen. Its the bowling department where they have always had trouble with.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
What would be interesting is if Sachin's (or VVS's or Dravid's) performance starts to tail off from its previous heights, but he remains the best man available for the job. Will a Tendulkar who averages (say) 40 for the next few years want to go in test cricket on or would he retire, mindful of his average and legacy?

No guarantee his batting will decline of course, but a knotty hypthetical. I personally suspect he'll play on. You're a long time retired, as the old adage has it, and Sachin has never come across as an average obsessed player anyway. & it's perhaps worth noting that Boycott, who did, played on long enough for his test average to fall below 50.
 

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