22nd June 2023, Thursday
After The Humongous Defeat In The Finals Of the World Test Championship At Oval, London. There Is A Constant Chatter Among The Fans & Cricket Pandits Around The World For The Long Due Transition Among The Indian Test Side. After All, This Is An Aging Side, With All The Stalwarts Now Moving Slowly & Slowly Into Their Mid-30s. Virat One Of The Finest Of This Format For India (Despite His Downward Graph Recently)Now Is Currently At The Age Of 34, Cheteshwar Pujara Who Was Dropped After The South Africa Tour Last Year, Rolled Back Into The Side After His Tremendous County Cricket Stint With Sussex Is Now At Age Of 35 Already. The Captain Of The Side Rohit Sharma Himself Is Now At 36 Years Of Age And Have Been Dealing With Hamstring Injuries With Some Other Injuries From Quite A Sometime Now. India’s Ace Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, The Man Who Is Prima Donna Of the Indian Bowling Unit At Home, Is Also Now 36 & We Don’t Know How Long He Will Continue To Play Further. Umesh Yadav & Mohammed Shami are Now Also Reaching That Age Where A Breakdown Is More Of A Certainty Nowadays.
Umesh Is Also Suffering From Poor Form Now Ever Since His Last Tour To England In 2021 Where He Was Last Seen In His Full Rythem.
Age Is Not Just The Only Factor Responsible For This Discussion Here, The Performances Of These Stalwarts, Barring Ashwin, Over The Past 3 Years Is Disappointing, To Say The Least.
Here Are The Averages Of Some Indian Batsmen From Past 3 Years (2020-2023) –
The Stats Above Are Alone The Testimony For The Performances Of These Players, Despite Playing at least 50 Test Matches Each Except Rishabh Pant, Neither Single One Of Them Is Averaging Above 40. Rohit Sharma Is Brilliant As The Opener At Home But Finds Himself In Troubles On Foreign Soils And Also Missed Some Of The Crucial Matches Away Due To His Poor Fitness.
The Pressure On These Players Increases When Their Juniors Are Busy Piling Buckets Of Runs In Domestic Circuits Continuously.
The Likes Of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan , Narayan Jagadeesan, Baba Aparajith . Yashasvi & Sarfaraz Are The Two Players Who Are At The Brink Of Destroying That Selection Door Beacuse Of Their Performances. Sarfraz Have A 1000 Runs Ranjhi Season With Him & Meanwhile Yashasvi Has Shown The World What He Can Do In This Year’s Ipl With Rajasthan Royals Stint. They Both Are Scoring Like A Machine For Thier State Team, Mumbai. In Bowling Unit, Mukesh Kumar, Ishan Porel Are There With Each Having Over 20 Wickets In 2021-2022 Ranji Trophy with Effective Economies . Shahbaz Ahmed, The Star Of Bengal, Is The Like To Like Replacement For Jadeja With His Over Capabilities. Jalaj Saxena A Right Arm Off break Bowler From Madhya Pradesh Has 50 Wickets In 13 Innings In the 2022-2023 Ranji Trophy Season.
There Are Several Reports Emerging In the Media About The Future Of Rohit Sharma As Test Captain Ahead In the New WTC Cycle Forward. It Is Speculated That Rohit Has Demanded A Break From The Caribbean Test Tour, But The Reasons Are Not Cited As Of Now. However, It’s Also A Big Issue That Will Take the Baton From Rohit In the Near Future. As Of Now, The Only Deserving Candidate Rishabh Pant Is Unfortunately Out From The Race Because Of His Accident That Took Place Last December. Selectors Have A Tough Job Ahead With Them & The Squad Selection For the West Indies Tour Which Is Likely To Happen In 4th Week Of June will Answer Some Big & Demanding Questions To All The Stakeholders.
With the New WTC Cycle Starting From West Indies Tour Which Will Commence On 12th July 2023, It Will Be Interesting To Know How The Selectors Will Jot Down The Smooth Transition Process With Slow & Steady Phasing Out Of Stalwarts With Young Boiling Blood To Take The Indian Test Team Legacy To Greater Heights.
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