India needs to persist with the youth

Finally a disastrous tour has come to an end and this was probably India’s worst overseas tour in a long time. The only silver lining on the entire tour was the performance of the young players.

The ODI series threw up some good candidates for the future and it was promising to watch these youngsters perform in adverse conditions. Rahane, Patel, Kohli, Raina and Jadeja did enough to warrant a consistent run at least in the ODI squad.

The debut of Rahane was particularly heartening. He for sure is here to stay in the Indian middle order in all formats along with Kohli and Pujara. India needs to make sure that such talents are not wasted. Parthiv Patel too showed that he needs to be given an extended run the squad. Raina proved that he is probably India’s best ODI player at number 6 and Kohli once again reiterated his class with a hundred in the final ODI. What this series proved is that India has great wealth of talent in the batting. In spite of the absence of key players the young players were able to put up some great scores.

The return of Jadeja was an incredible surprise and it seems like the youngster has worked really hard on his technique and composure. The Indian selectors need to make sure that these players are not forgotten and remain in the radar for the upcoming tours. Even though this tour highlighted some excellent batting by the youngsters, the same cannot be said about the bowling department. Varun Aaron never got a chance to showcase his talent. One of the baffling selection errors by the team management on this tour was his omission in the ODI games. Except for Praveen Kumar the rest of the pacers looked extremely ordinary and looks like India need to dig deep to find some decent ones to remain competitive.

India needs to identify some promising young bowlers and send them on A tours. Spin department is much better with Bhajji still available and Ashwin doing a reasonable job. We have Ojha and Mishra still waiting in the wings.

So overall a 3-0 result was not bad as it sounds. India did unearth some very good young talent on the ODI leg of the tour and I would say that it will be in the best interest of the team to persist with them. India need to rebuild for the future and prepare for a team without the greats and ODI should be the start. There is promise and the selectors need to make sure that these players are not lost in translation and make a smooth transition to the test squad in the future.

Article by: Giridharan Subramanian