Over the past decade, since Dada took over, we have made some great progress, but of-late seem to have reached a plateau, especially in test cricket. We are still unbeatable at home, and have been good challengers abroad, or at least were till June’11. But we seem to be in a limbo currently.

If Ganguly had not retired (and going by what his successors have done since, he would have done better), we still have the same middle order we had on the 1999 tour down under. Granted that this middle order has housed some of the greatest players ever including the two highest run-getters in Tests, even the famed WI quarter of Roberts, Holding, Garner and Croft played only 11 tests together. Regardless of Croft’s escapades in South Africa, Marshall would have soon knocked the door down anyways. The point here is: continuity in the team is good, but too much of it also indicates that there probably is no worthy challenger knocking on the door.

Every time there has been some talk of dropping any of the big 5 (Sehwag included here), it has always been a case of their lack of form or fitness, never the big performances of a player in the domestic circuit. Of late, even Gautam Gambhir has reached that exalted status, where regardless of his repeated failures (to the same mistake!) talk of his place being insecure is brushed away. I think this series has given us the chance to set certain things right, which for me, begin at the top:

Drop Gautam Gambhir

Yes, he has a street-fighter’s heart, but sadly for him, we know that. And since we don’t see that often these days, we know there is something wrong. Repeatedly getting out to his patented steer through the slips on slightly challenging pitches does not a fighter make. Considering that he had to really grind it out to make a comeback, one would have hoped that complacency would not have snuck in so quickly but clearly that seems to be the case here.

Recall Mukund, who looked adequate without looking outstanding, or maybe even Rahane could be asked to open. He bats one drop, and so technically is definitely equipped to play the new ball. The only question is mental, and considering the scarcity of opportunities in the Indian batting order over the past decade, he should be willing. If they succeed, and Gambhir is willing for another scrap, great for us. If they fail, Gambhir still gets the message, and we win. If they succeed and Gambhir doesn’t make it back, we still don’t lose.

Get Rohit in for VVS

This is the toughest one. VVS is a man whose career cannot be summed up in runs and centuries. The number of times he has rescued India from the dire straits cannot be measured in batting averages. But there comes a time everything beautiful must end, to give birth to something new, something that is hopefully even more beautiful. Of the three big boys remaining, fairly or not, VVS has the least slack. The way Sachin is batting, and the way Dravid batted last year, make them untouchable currently. Temptation arises to give VVS another series, but remember we have almost 2 years of home cooked food after this tour, and we all know what happens next. It would make sense to blood Rohit when his game and his mind finally seem to have come of age. Temptation is also there to play Sharma in place of Kohli, but having seen Kolhi develop in the other two forms so beautifully, it makes sense to invest some more time in him. This will also help is becoming a fitter team, and though I still believe that in Cricket skill takes precedence over fitness, how nice it would be to have Hussey and Warner manning the point-gully region cutting-off certain boundaries, and pulling off blinders.

Should the captain be on notice?

This one probably sounds scandalous, and might not be for immediate action. But, think again. In tests, Dhoni is a wicket-keeper batsman, and a captain. Sadly, we do not have another good keeper batsman challenging Dhoni, but may be it would be wise to ease the burden off Dhoni and let him play as a keeper-batsman. This way, he can concentrate on getting his batting together, which has clearly not been up to his lofty standards in ODIs and T20s. It may not be just a coincidence that MSD has been a better captain in the formats where he has contributed with the bat much more. Also, tactically he seems to have imported his limited overs’ ideas into the Test arena. He comes across as someone who is far more comfortable captaining spinners on Indian tracks than a good pace attack on a helpful pitch at the MCG or the Lords. And given the bowling stocks we have, it might be a bad marriage.

Easing him off the captaincy also means that there is a real pressure on him to perform with the bat, since he will not be indispensable anymore. It is infinitely easier to drop your wicketkeeper than your captain.

Some of these might sound harsh, some illogical even, but the history is witness that even the greatest Indian players not called Tendulkar, Gavaskar or Kapil generally do not learn until faced with a genuine fear of being dropped, or actually being dropped altogether.

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