The uncertainties of revenge tours

UMPIRE'S POST

If the ongoing Bangladesh tour is India's idea of a revenge tour, it has failed miserably. In fact, the Indian cricket team is more uncertain today.

In 1983, just after losing the World Cup final, Clive Lloyd led a seething West Indies team on a "revenge tour" to India. Although it was too late to salvage the World Cup, Lloyd's wounded soldiers dished out a drubbing that was actually worse than the score line of 5-0 in the five-match one-day series.

Mysteriously, the hype around India's tour to Bangladesh gave the impression that Dravid team, which shockingly crashed out in the World Cup qualifying round, was on a similar mission to Bangladesh, which expectedly exited in the next.

The Indian team indeed won the three-match one-day series 2-0, with one rained out, but it is a victory that proves nothing "" certainly not the balm needed for the World Cup wounds. If anything, there are more uncertainties associated with the team managed by cricket manager (whatever that means) Ravi Shastri, inexplicably picked for the job for being a good commentator.

The problems begin at the beginning. With the decision to "rest" Ganguly, we opened with Sehwag, who the chief selector has accused of squandering his talent, and Gambhir, who the sponsors will try to build up as a star. The left hander scored a century, but has never delivered in any conditions less benign than friendly.

The middle order had Mongia, whose chances of finding a stable slot are long gone, Yuvraj, who failed in both matches, and two wicket-keepers. Talking of the bench strength, there is little to say beyond the two wicket-keepers in the middle order.

The bowling line-up is in no better health. Sreesanth, who played the first match and returned figures of 5-1-14-0, did not play the second, in which the new ball was given to Khan (7-1-54-0 in the first match) and Patel (7-1-31-0).

The test scenario, which opened on Friday, is bleaker. Sehwag was out, both wicket-keepers remained and one of them opened. Harbhajan is in the wilderness. Kumble is in the twilight of his career. The other spinner's slot went to Powar instead of Chawla, who bowled admirably in the second ODI.

The most fun, though, came before the test match started. In the build-up to it, Dravid spoke thus: "Obviously it is going to be a bit more difficult for them in tests simply because they haven't played that much test cricket... We have got players who have a lot of test experience. So we expect to do well in both the test matches."

Bangladesh is playing its first test in 13 months. But is experience the only edge India has? What will happen when Bangladesh gains experience? If experience alone wins matches, should players be allowed to retire?