Sunil Gavaskar: Warm-up matches would have given first-timers to Australia better chance to succeed

Wouldn’t the practice matches benefit youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan, who are playing on Australian pitches for the first time, to get some runs under their belt and get a feel of what the pitches will be like?

Sunil Gavaskar wants Team India to play some warm-up games, even if they are against State A teams like Queensland A and Victoria A.  | Photo Credit: AP

Australia looks like a huge mountain to climb after the Indian team stumbled terribly on a speed bump called New Zealand. Nobody, not even the Kiwis themselves, would have thought of a clean sweep against India, and that too in India. It has happened thanks to the short-gain policy of preparing pitches for our spinners when just about everybody in the cricketing world agrees that we have the best new-ball bowler in the world across all formats. How about preparing a pitch for him? With the balance that India has in its bowling attack, it’s always a good idea to go in with a pitch that wears gradually rather than a pitch where the match finishes in about three days.

Yes, the points for qualification for the World Test Championship Final are at stake, but why would you give the opposition team a chance where their spinners, who are not half as good as yours, look like giant killers and, in fact, turn out to be so too? Ever since the bouncer rule restricting fast bowlers to just two bouncers an over has come in, batters have started moving forward and forward, almost forgetting the use of the backfoot and the crease.

The short boundaries and big bats have meant even miscued shots are going for sixes. Batters play with hard hands, as they do in white-ball cricket, which means when the ball turns or even seams off the pitch, the edges carry to the fielders in the slip cordon. More than technique, it is temperament that is the main problem. The real issue is the thinking where again the short boundaries and big bats mean that batters, after playing three or four dot balls, think they can change the momentum by going for a big shot.

It may work with the white ball, which doesn’t swing, seam, or spin as much, but with the red ball, it’s flirting with danger, especially if one has just come in to bat. Test cricket requires some patience, especially on pitches where the bowlers are getting some assistance, but not many modern batters believe in that. Then there’s this new thinking that, come what may, we will play only at breakneck speed in a five-day game, and that means there is not much thought given to tiring the bowler out or waiting for conditions to improve.

That’s why Pujaras and Rahanes have no place in the Indian team’s plans. Pujara wore down the Australian attack, as did Rahane, and so the stroke-makers could take advantage of a tired attack and flog it and make up for a slow but watchful start. That kind of thinking is not there. Now there’s this business of belting the ball like England batters are doing and losing badly overseas.

Australia can be salvaged because the pitches there are beautiful to bat on after the first dozen overs or so, after which the ball hardly deviates off the surface. To do that, though, the team needs to play a bit more on those kinds of pitches. Instead, we are now told that the warm-up game before the first Test has been called off. Wouldn’t it benefit youngsters like (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and Sarfaraz (Khan), who are playing on Australian pitches for the first time, to get some runs under their belt and get a feel of what the pitches will be like?

And if they get out early, they can still get into the nets and practice against the throwdown specialist or the net bowlers. For bowlers like Akash Deep and Harshit Rana too, it’s essential to know the best length to bowl in Australia, as it’s different from India, and the best learning is in a proper match and not just net practice.

Let’s just hope that good sense prevails, and even now, though it’s too late, some warm-up games can be arranged, even if it’s against the State A teams like Queensland A and Victoria A. These warm-up games will give the first-timers to Australia and youngsters good practice and a better chance to succeed.

All Indian cricket fans are keeping our spirits high and our fingers crossed for Australia. Let’s hope that the New Zealand series was just a bad dream and turns out to be a very good wake-up call.