Can Sehwag be the new Gandhi?

Back in the 1910s, India’s struggle to oust the British from our country was going haywire. It was as directionless as a Suraj Barjatya movie. We firmly maintained that we were a great civilization, and would have eventually learnt how to make tea and to ball dance, with or without British supervision. No one else seemed to believe. At that juncture, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi took command of the situation, and slowly but surely steered the nation to independence.

The current context isn’t as grand, but is worrying nonetheless. India are in the middle of a losing battle to salvage their No.1 ranking in test cricket. England are hell bent on taking it. In the last two test matches, our team has shown flashes of Indian cricket from the nightmarish 80s and early 90s. That spirit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory has dominated. Half of the team is out injured, and the nation looks to Virender Sehwag as the potential savior. It might as well happen. All of us know that if Sehwag stays in the middle for two sessions of play, he will snatch the game from the opposition, and set the much needed platform to win the next two test matches. Here is his moment to do a “Gandhi” on the Brits, and restore his team’s pride.

The onus, however, not rests on Sehwag alone. The Indian team has looked like a distant shadow of the fighting force that it has been over the last three years. Harbhajan Singh has been among the most threatening batsmen on this tour, and MS Dhoni has looked menacing with the ball on a couple of occasions. That surely can’t be good news. There have been moments of domination, led mostly by Rahul Dravid and the medium pacers, but as a team, India have failed to deliver the knockout blow.

Let’s not take anything away from England. Obnoxious as they are, they have played like world beaters. Stuart Broad has been the stand out performer for them. He seems well on his way to becoming the most famous lad from Nottingham since Robinhood. The rhetoric in the British press (By British press I mean two former England captains who sobbed when they were sacked and contributed generously to the greatness of McGrath and Warne in their playing days) would have you believe that the first two test matches were as significant as the Dunkirk-Battle of Britain one-two during the World War. Michael Vaughan has already predicted a 4-0 triumph for England. Now normally, Michael Vaughan’s opinion should matter only as much as the next Fardeen Khan movie. The unnerving thing however, is that as someone who has been at the wrong end of several clean sweeps, Vaughan might be on to something here. Anyways, I am sure Dhoni has taken note of this prophetic revelation, and will do all he can to save Mr. Vaughan the blushes of being termed a messiah/prophet etc. Let’s hope England will not have to go through the pressure of being the No.1 team in the world.

Elsewhere in the cricketing fraternity, news from Pakistan continues to entertain (However not as much as Zulqarnain Haider’s Houdini act last year. That one took the cake). In an insightful move, the selectors have decided to “rest” Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz for the tour of Zimbabwe. Now here’s the thing – Both of these gentlemen have not appeared in an international since March. One must wonder what exactly has led to this need for “rest”? Were they training too hard? What for? My guess would be international cricket fixtures. Shahid Afridi’s omission from the squad has bamboozled many. What bamboozles me is that how could they forget that Afridi announced his retirement from cricket three months ago. It would be a bit harsh to blame the Pakistani media. It is indeed difficult to tell who in Pakistan is retired and who isn’t. I just learnt that Younis Khan isn’t retired anymore.

More on international fixtures – Zimbabwe returned to test cricket with a victory over who else but Bangladesh and Australia lost their two T-20 fixtures against Sri Lanka. No one seemed to notice apart from parties directly involved.

P.S. - Inzamam-Ul-Haq has sent his compliments to Ian Bell for coming so close to adding one of stupidest run outs in the history of the game to his resume. He agreed that a similar incident involving Tendulkar would have caused riots in Mumbai. He also agreed that it is not Tendulkar’s fault that the English cricket fans think their cricketers are not worth rioting for.