Placid tracks during 'A' Tour is South African ploy to foil Indian plans

When the BCCI  announced that the India A team would be touring South Africa for a tri-series involving the A sides of the hosts and Australia, there was plenty of cheer in the India cricket community.

India A's tour of South Africa was deemed to be more of a preparation for the forthcoming tour of the senior team in the tough and bouncy conditions. However, it appears like the 

Cheteshwar Pujara-led side is having it easy.

A brief look at the scores in the recently concluded tri-series and one could be excused for thinking that the matches were being played in the subcontinent.

Of the total seven games played in the tri-series, a mammoth 4090 runs were scored by all the three teams combined. That translates into a colossal 292.14 runs per innings. A flat pitch with true bounce and short boundaries resulted in seven hundreds being scored, including Shikhar Dhawan's jaw-dropping 248 against South Africa A. Ironically, it was the final that turned out to be a damp squib and the lowest scoring game of the series, which India A managed to win by 50 runs against Australia A.

The story was not too different when India A played their first unofficial 'Test' at Olympia Park, Rustenburg on August 17^th. After posting an impressive 582 in the first innings with Pujara, Sharma and Raina slamming centuries, Indian quicks-born and brought up on flat decks were quick to dismantle the Proteas to hand visitors a thumping innings and 13-run win.

With the second Test currently underway in batsman-friendly Pretoria, where the home team are without the services of Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Marchant de Lange, the result seems to be a foregone conclusion.

When asked if the performances here could be a red herring for the senior team ahead of their tour in December, India A's coach Lalchand Rajput was frank in his assessment when he said " We expected a lot of bounce and seam movement. What we have got here though is a complete paata (belter) wicket. It's been a surprise. But conditions are not in our control."

Not someone to be misled by the prevailing conditions, Cheteshwar Pujara was quick to add "These wickets are quite flat out here at the moment and when we come in December, the conditions will be hugely different and we are aware about it. It's about getting used to the conditions, not the wickets only but the weather and other aspects of this game."

In this context of flat tracks, while it's difficult to be excited about some of the batting performances, it is pertinent to mention that all the Indian batsman have been among runs.

For the bowlers, this could yet turn out to be a good lesson. They might not have got the pitches they anticipated but at least they know what areas they have to work on.

They were slaughtered throughout the tournament but somehow, the Indians led by Mohammad Shami managed to produce an inspiring performance to help India A win the final. Ishwar Pandey's hard work finally paid dividends, when the young pacer decimated the Proteas line-up with a scintillating 7-wicket haul in the first Test, helping India A notch up a comprehensive victory.

To some this may seem as a deliberate ploy on part of Cricket South Africa to negate any advantages to the visiting Indian side comprising members of the senior team and fringe players. But when one takes into account the stakes involved-The coveted No. 1 Test ranking, the famous adage 'All's fair in love and war' seems totally apt.

Indian selectors have failed to understand the true meaning of 'A' tours

With a resounding 50-run victory in the final of the triangular 50-over series against Australia A, India A finished the limited overs leg of their tour of South Africa on a high. 

It is interesting to note that from the 16-man squad led by Cheteshwar Pujara, as many as ten members were part of the Indian team that swept Zimbabawe 5-0 in the recent series. The remaining six were part of a short camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore before departing for the Rainbow Nation on August 3.

In fact most of the batsman in the playing eleven have been an integral part of the senior side in recent months. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have opened the batting for India since the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. Dinesh Karthik and Suresh Raina have also been fixtures in the side. Only Cheteshwar Pujara and Ambati Rayudu are yet to get an extended run in the senior one-day team. Thus, India A was relatively stronger when compared to the batting units of their opponents.

What one needs to realize is, that the very purpose of conducting 'A' tours is to give international exposure to players who have been consistently knocking on the selectors' doors for quite a while. 

For long, 'A' tours have provided a good opportunity for fringe players to earn a berth in the senior team. Players who are in and out of the team, coming off of an injury or those who have done extremely well in the domestic circuit, in other words those who are not regulars in the team, are basically the intended beneficiaries of such tours. 

With the current tour being wrongly labelled as an audition of sorts for several members of the 16-man squad considering India will travel to South Africa in November for a full series against the hosts, the sole purpose of testing India's bench strength has been defeated.

Yes, all this while Dhawan smashed his way to the record books with a breathtaking 248-run knock. But if we take a moment to pause and think that if Dhawan would have managed 200 runs less than that in the innings and scored 48 runs, won't he still have been opening the batting for the senior side, considering his past exploits?

Similar is the case with Rohit Sharma. Having yet again flattered to deceive, without converting any of his three fifties in the series, Sharma seems yet again being easily satisfied. Irrespective of the scores, it's a no-brainer that he will be seen partnering Dhawan at the top of the order for the national team.

Instead of putting pressure on these openers, selectors lost a golden opportunity in trying out other openers in the fray, notably Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay, thereby robbing them of opportunities to stake a claim for a place in the national team.

The true essence of an 'A' tour would have come to the fore when players like Sharma and Raina who are yet to establish themselves in the longer version of the game, taken part only in the second leg of the series. The First-Class matches against South Africa A provide a chance to prove themselves and push for a berth in the touring party, come November.

They may not get a game on the big tour, but may be in the fray for the later series. After all, Sachin Tendulkar's retirement is around the corner and his exit would leave a gaping hole at No. 4. Even if Virat Kohli is promoted to that spot, No. 5 would still be up for grabs.

With the Sandeep Patil led selection committee seemingly unable to comprehend the true meaning of 'A' tours, hopefully that's something Indian cricket doesn't regret in the future.

Sri Lanka's youngsters fail to inspire confidence

It's the end of another tournament. Another home series won by a handsome margin. But sadly for Sri Lanka Cricket, it's those familiar faces again who continue to top the charts.

Not long ago there was a huge buzz in Emerald Isle about how youngsters were not getting enough chances at the highest level. When Thilan Samaraweera retired from all forms of the game having lost his place in both ODI and Test teams, Sri Lankan selectors  finally woke up to answer the clarion call by providing an opportunity to youngsters in the Champions Trophy, tri-nation tournament in the Caribbean as well as the home series against South Africa. But have they really delivered the goods that were expected from them? No! Instead they have hopelessly disappointed a nation of cricket lovers.

For a nation that has witnessed the likes of Madugalle and Ranatunga wielding the willow, it seems only proper that the silken touch of Jayawardene and the flamboyance of Sangakkara are worthy heirs to the flair of Attapattu, grit of Aravinda de Silva and brutal power of Jayasuriya. However, with the two guardians of Sri Lankan cricket along with the aggressive match winner Dilshan fast approaching the twilight of their careers, it is baffling to observe the dearth of talent to replace them.

Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews are the captains of the national team in different formats of the game. There is certainly no doubt in the talent that both Chandimal and Mathews possess. But in recent times their talent has rarely translated into match winning performances on the field.

Their inability to convert starts and help the senior pros in forming substantial partnerships has hurt the team badly. Time and again, they have fallen victims to injudicious strokes when the need of the hour has been to stay on the wicket and play patiently, letting themselves and their fans down.

Kusal Perera has averaged just over five in his last seven international innings. Having arrived in the international side in a whirlwind of hype, his failures continue to be considered kindly, but it won't be long before there are calls to send him back to domestic cricket so that someone else can be tried.

The idea behind selecting Lahiru Thirimanne for ODI's was that he could provide some stability in a rather fragile middle order. But it seems when Thirimanne bats, nothing happens. He is terribly slow, a fact vindicated not only in the recent home series but also in the Champions Trophy. It is difficult to digest that Thirimanne’s striker rate in ODI's (68.48) is worse than Samaraweera’s (69.29).

Tillakaratne Dilshan has admitted that Sri Lanka cricket in fact is in crisis at present and blames the existing domestic cricket structure for producing half-baked cricketers. According to the in form opener "There's a huge gap between our domestic level and the international level. So when cricketers integrate directly from domestic level to international level it takes time for them to bridge that gap. So we need to revamp the domestic structure, making it as competitive as possible. This is why cricketers coming from other countries do better when called up for national duty".

Except for exposing their cricketing immaturity, Sri Lanka's youth brigade has hardly been effective leaving the seniors to do the job. The side's senior batsmen have carried the load on their shoulders for some years now. All three are yet to taste major tournament glory and now may only have two more opportunities remaining to them before the years begin to weary their game. For the sake of Sri Lanka Cricket, it is high time that the youngsters stand up and get counted. After all the cricketing world cannot afford a sub-continental giant to fritter away in obscurity.