T N Ninan: 35:35 in cricket

WEEKEND RUMINATIONS

T en Indian batsmen have scored 4,000 runs or more in Test cricket, of which all but the all-rounder Kapil Dev have an average of more than 40 (going up to 59 for Dravid). These batsmen entered the Test arena in a steady stream from 1969, starting with Vishwanath and Mohinder Amarnath. They were followed by Gavaskar in 1971, Vengsarkar in 1975 and Kapil in 1978. Then the gap from the birth of one star to the next stretched to five years and more: Azharuddin in 1984 and Tendulkar in 1989. The gold rush was in 1996, when Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman all made their mark. Since then, there has been only Sehwag (2001), who is just shy of 4,000 runs and has a handsome average of 53.

Why should this concern us? Because Ganguly has already left the arena; Tendulkar tragically is more out than in these days, and Dravid and Laxman are 32-33 years old. None of them will be around in 3-4 years. Who will take their place in what was once considered the world's best batting team? None of the young Turks has measured up to the challenge of averaging 40 runs in Test cricket. Whether it is Yuvraj, Kaif, Gambhir, Jaffer or Dhoni, they all average around 35 runs "" which is a journeyman's record, not the mark of a quality batsman. In short, India is staring at a batting vacuum.

The bowling is no better. The quality cut-off here is an average of 30 runs per wicket "" all the country's bowling greats of the past met that standard: the spin trio certainly did, and so did Kapil Dev and Srinath. Today, only Kumble and Harbhajan pass that test, along with Pathan and Munaf Patel. But Kumble has been playing Test cricket for 16 years and is approaching the end of his career, and Pathan is already burnt out after just 25 Tests. None of the others who are being tried (Sreesanth, RP Singh, VRV Singh, Balaji, Zaheer Khan, Powar, Kartik, Agarkar...) comes within sniffing distance of a 30 average. So there is a bowling crisis building up as well. And remember that we are asking only for an average of 30 "" not the 21-25 runs per wicket achieved by true strike bowlers like Muralitharan, Warne, McGrath, Shoaib Akhtar and Pollock.

If Dravid's men struggle today to get the better of a mediocre West Indies, one reason is bad luck (the weather intervened in the second Test); another has been the absence of strike bowlers (the first Test); and a third has been the lack of batting depth "" or the skipper would certainly have pushed for victory in the third Test, when he needed a run a ball from 24 overs, with seven wickets in hand. In other words, the talent famine is beginning to tell on performance, and may affect the deciding Test that started yesterday.

Compare this with the talent feast that Australia enjoys: no fewer than eight batsmen with a batting average of 45 or more! And five bowlers who have an average that is better than 30, with two bowlers at 25 runs/wicket. So while a strong team of batsmen and bowlers would show up with averages of 40 and 30, respectively, Australia has world-beaters with a 45:25 team. There isn't much to differentiate Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England "" all of them (like the West Indies) have India's mix of the good and the average. But none of them seems to have talent drying up in quite the same way in both the specialisations. Pakistan is producing attractive young batsmen, South Africa has a better bowling team, and England has greater depth in batting (six batsmen at 40 or better).

This may seem a pessimistic assessment when India has beaten or drawn with most teams in the past year. But the presence of the older generation of batsmen and bowlers in India's line-up masks the crisis that is building up on account of the absence of young stars. If Australia at the top has a 45:25 team, India seems to be headed for 35:35.