Ponting's India test, captaincy test!

If you’re not an Indian or an Australian, you could be forgiven for thinking that the 2001 Test Series played between the two cricketing powerhouses is talked about a “bit too often”. That is, it wont be a surprise to assume an Englishman thinking that way too much is made of that series and that there have been more interesting series played than that. While the latter part of the previous line could be true and “is” probably true, for someone who was witness to almost each and every delivery of that historic series, its hard to think of any other more riveting series, atleast post 2001 [Ashes ’05 comes pretty close though]. One reason for the same is that something so defining happened during that series that teams throughout the world too note of it, got so affected by it that starting from that match, captains started thinking twice before implementing that gameplan; a gameplan that hitherto was such a straightforward thing to do to assert your authority over the game! Yes, they call it the VVS effect!

Thanks to that man, Steve Waugh and most captains to have played the game thereafter refused to implement the “follow-on”. Ashes ’05 was bad for the Aussies but Adam Gilchrist did find a way to tackle Freddie Flintoff’s reverse swing, Australian batsman could cope with the pace of Steve Harmison and co. later on, Glenn McGrath finally did get a 5-0 win prediction over England right; all that and much more did eventually happen in Ashes ’07. But that VVS effect lingered on. One innings from that stylist Hyderabadi and it changed the way captains thought!

The problem with such mindset is that even the most aggressive of captains end up thinking a bit too defensively. I have no problems with captains doing that if they are on the verge of something historic and are hence adopting a “safety-first” strategy. Rahul Dravid had every right to feel aggrieved at the way the media went for his blood after he did not invite England to bat again in the 3rd Test of the 2006 Test series versus England. India had already secured a 1-0 lead, was about to win a major overseas series and he had every reason to “secure” that coveted win. Fair call, accepted! But when captains fail to declare even after they secure a 450 run lead or worse, on day 5 Indian tracks refuse to stop the innings despite having a near 350 run surplus, it surely tends to raise questions on the captain’s thinking prowess. Sure enough, instances of crazy batting tales will take place. Agreed; out here I’m not talking about the “follow-on” syndrome, only raising the point of how negatively captains have begun to think in recent years. And much of that credit or blame, however you put it, can be traced back to that 281. Surely captains around the world are more experienced or are atleast supposed to be more experienced than you and I, the average reader. Surely, on a typical crumbling day 5 Indian track, if someone wont call off an innings despite having a 300+ lead, he surely needs to take a few lessons from the Norman Vincent Peale classic “ The Power of Positive Thinking”.

Once again, whilst the opportunity to enfore a “follow-on” did not arise at all, the current Test looks all set for a photo finish now. The visiting captain’s mindset will be on display and it will let us know how aggressive he is as far as his “desire to win in India” is concerned. Chances are high that RTP will have the opportunity to declare the innings either overnight or latest after batting for half an hour tomorrow. A Mark Taylor would surely have invited the hosts to bat again after getting somewhere like 275 runs in front. The best captain to have played the game since Imran Khan, he knew the importance of getting an early lead in an important Test series and more critically, wasn’t scared to gamble on a few losses in pursuit of important wins.

Punter hopefully will trust his bowlers and ideally should invite the hosts to bat for a few overs tonight itself. As stated earlier, by all probabilities, the Aussies would have taken a substantial lead by say, 4 pm and must ask Sehwag and Co. to bat for atleast half an hour. Also, recent history shows how inept the Indian batting is when it comes to 4th innings efforts. Barring that great effort at Lords two seasons ago, we’ve got little else to show as far as “saving Test matches” are concerned. A shrewd Ricky Ponting is expected to be aware of all this. But it remains to be seen if he too is too stung by a few reversals that were inflicted on his team by these very opponents. Most cricket pundits rated Mark Taylor as a better captain than Steve Waugh and there were mighty important reasons for that. Tonight we’ll get to see whose legacy would Ricky Thomas Ponting want to inherit! His batting record was corrected straightaway out here but his real test of captaincy is yet to begin!!