The curious case of Gautam Gambhir – a comeback on the cards?

Gautam Gambhir

It can’t be sheer coincidence that the fortune of the entire band of ‘pros’ in the World Cup 2011 winning Indian squad took a turn for the worse once the jubilation wore off, and the team was asked to move on to places like England and Australia.

A steady erosion in India’s status as a time-tested Test champion was set in motion soon after an overly jubilant World Cup winning squad ventured into the foreign lands – this precipitous decline in India’s position on the world stage paved the way for a wave of breakdowns inside the very core of the team.

Sehwag, Zaheer, Gambhir and Harbhajan were the most serious casualties of this destructive trend – all of them were once indispensable to India’s hopes of lifting the coveted World Cup after 28 long years; but in no time they were reduced to pathetic shadows of their former selves, scrambling to somehow rest on their past laurels and move ahead.

Except Zaheer, who has recently made a comeback to the Indian Test squad primarily due to the glaring paucity of talent in the team’s bowling ranks, none of the other three has found a way to break into the playing eleven of a refurbished Team India.

Gautam Gambhir, especially, has been the most unfortunate – in spite of scoring big runs in the domestic circuit on a consistent basis, he has not been able to swerve the selectors’ eyes away from a lackluster Murali Vijay at the top of the order in Test matches; his case for an ODI spot has been made later in this article.

But, let’s take a fresh look at why exactly Gambhir’s case deserves more attention than what it is receiving at present. In order to perform an accurate reconnaissance of this case, let us first take our mind off the following issues–

1. The hoopla that the cricket crazy India was pandering itself with, while the team was devouring oppositions till the last morsel, on familiar home conditions for the last few months at a stretch.
2. The fact that India is perched high atop the ODI rankings and placed close to the top ranking Proteas in the longer format of the game .
3. The fact that almost every member of the Indian team, prior to the start of the South African tour, seemed worthy of a place in the ICC top 10 lists for batsmen, bowlers and all rounders.
4. The fact that the entire team ‘seems’ to be in sublime touch at the moment – it all appears to be picture perfect!

If the time that Gautam Gambhir is spending in isolation now, away from the international limelight and in the ghastly wilderness of the Indian domestic circuit, is not a punitive measure aimed at ‘teaching him the right lessons’ for his ‘colossal failure’ in the aftermath of the WC 2011, then one is inclined to believe that the one of the reasons enumerated above must be responsible for his protracted exile .

Let’s see why, or rather let’s understand why he deserves to be treated as a genuine contender for the opener’s spot, in atleast one format of the game, for Team India. To accomplish this task of understanding most effectively, we shall consider the credibility of Gambhir’s claim for a spot in the team against that of the most vulnerable member.

Test Cricket – Gautam Gambhir v Murali Vijay

It doesn’t take the percipience of a Harsha Bhogle or an Ian Chappell to understand that the otherwise-classy Murali Vijay’s apparent discomfort in foreign conditions is not any once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence. Since his glorious debut against Australia in Nagpur, five years ago, the highest that Vijay has averaged in an overseas series is 33, when he managed to cough up 99 runs in the three innings he played against Sri Lanka in 2010.

Interestingly, that is also the highest tally of runs that he has ever accrued in an away-Test series since his debut in 2008. Juxtapose such dismal away-record with the consistent  run of poor form that this man has been experiencing in the latest Ranji season, and you shall find yourself walking on thin ice while trying to cook explanations apparently responsible for the selectors deciding to go ahead with Vijay, instead of boosting the confidence of a resurgent Gambhir, coming fresh out of an impressive domestic season.

Ah, and I forgot – what was the elementary cause behind Gambhir’s unfortunate exclusion from the Indian team? It was poor batting in two back-to-back Test series in England and Australia in the six months that followed the World Cup.

So, the apparent benchmark for exclusion of Gambhir and selection of Vijay as a Test opener remains the same – but the logic takes a beating while throwing light on the gorge that exists between an out-of-favour grizzled team warrior like Gambhir and an overly pampered Murali Vijay. If you are thinking about Team India’s newfound zeal for recruiting young blood as the probable answer, forget about it – Murali Vijay is not a spring chicken anymore!