Tale of two debutants

For all the dominance and belligerence, and great Punjabi gusto about his famous Mohali debut a decade back, one could sense the inevitability to Shikhar Dhawan’s Test career and preempt technical problems ultimately catching up with the determined left-hander. And they did. Enduring an unmanageable home and away split, Dhawan’s last Test for India came five years back. 

In this decade, India have faced the ‘Dhawan problem’ in two of their other top-order punts. While fortunate to have extracted a defining overseas cycle from Murali Vijay and witnessed Rohit Sharma’s incredible ascent into a Test opener, the selectors have come face to face with the systematic fallies in the progression and the eventual axing of both Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal. 

Shaw and Agarwal left a mark on their respective debuts after dominating the Ranji realms, carrying the initial imprints of their blistering domestic form into the Test match arena. But it didn’t take the brutal red-ball format long to tame their wings and expose technical chinks to their defensive acumen to such extent that they have since developed into irreedeemed psychological dents. Even upon their return to first-class grind, the two are yet to recover. 

Shaw doesn’t want to tweak his game and approach but the realities of confronting Test match attacks have egged on his weaknesses and pushed him down in the reckoning. So deep that, for all his prolific run-scoring against shallow attacks facing the SG ball in domestic cricket, he might never play another Test match for India. That’s a Test career likely ending aged 23. 

At the crux of the problem is the ease that some Indian first-class openers are finding to stand upto a task in Ranji Trophy that is often the hardest attained skill in Test match cricket: facing consistent new-ball movement against fresh seamers when the surfaces are at their quickest and breathing space minimal. 

Agarwal may have imposed himself on Ranji Trophy bowlers to break the door open in 2018-19, but the rigours of the Test match game were bound to close it back on him with that unorthodox stance resulting in exaggerated gap between his legs entailing improper alignments and frontfoot strides, which regularly leave him opened up up against seamers. 

Dhawan, Agarwal and Shaw, as much as they symbolise the systematic shortcomings of the Ranji cricket, are also norms to a longstanding trend of India losing obviously talented individuals to inapt techniques at the top of the order. Historically, India have had more Test openers failing than the ones who have succeeded. 

Why, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer couldn’t maximise their zeal and skill and why we tend to transcend eras and decades in establishing Virender Sehwag in our minds as the only next great Test opener for India since the legendary Sunil Gavaskar retired. Heck, even the impactful Sehwag would acknowledge he only sporadically tasted success in the SENA countries. 

Very rarely Indian cricket has stumbled upon the horse for the long haul against the new-ball, who inspires feels and vibes of a trusted and dependable commodity. In Dominica Test, the attack that young Yashasvi Jaiswal faced maybe best served mindful of its limitations, but watching the 21-year-old bat for his marathon 171 off 387 one couldn’t help but insist on his long-term viability and the depth that shall stand the test of better, rounded attacks and more challenging conditions.

This may not have been as adventurous a beginning to the ones experienced and celebrated with Dhawan, Shaw and Agarwal but felt different and more convincing to invest in his future prospects. The start of a potential 15-year-long career, for one, this is a rare breed of modern-day Test opener whose game is built on a defence, not offence, and that he is damn good at what he does: be technically correct and patient outside the off-stump and vigilant enough to recognise, accept and imbibe composure, defiance and grind against disciplined, unrelenting bowling as an integral part of the job.  

Both qualities helped Jaiswal a great deal at the Windsor Park, where a dry surface that kept low and progressively, but intermittently, offered turn from the straight to spinners, meant forcing the pace off the bat was flirting with risk. When Gill pushed in his defensive prod with hard hands, he found out. Jaiswal judiciously picked out his moments when to play with and against the direction of the turn from Jomel Warrican, who, within his limited abilities, is a left-arm spinner adapt at executing his arm ball and varying his speeds and trajectories quite astutely. 

When Warrican kept the off-side open, Jaiswal was happy to tap him for single to mid-on and not until he forced the bowler to change his angle and the ball was full enough to not turn past his stride viciously was that bait taken. Against seamers, Jaiswal eventually found a plan to negotiate the bouncer ploy used by Alzarri Joseph after initial strife and only opened his bat face when he was cent percent sure to be in control against Jason Holder and Kemar Roach. Of the three on display, Holder tested this quality of the left-hander frequently without getting one past him until the very end. The edge that took for the leftie was his first and only such loose drive on the up. One in 387 balls, which was remarkable. 

More than the runs, it’s these attributes you wish to see with young debutants, for in that lies the sign of their durability at the international stage. In conditions as humid and draining as they were with a tricky surface and a dense outfield that would’ve tested his mental aptitude and drained him physically, it seemed Jaiswal was more than willing to bat another day in the middle if he could. Now it helps in such circumstances that he is the youngest member of the squad and doesn’t have brittle headspace, but ESPNcricinfo counted the batter’s marathon to be in control as high as 86% of the balls he faced, which was the joint-highest with Rohit Sharma for all the batters on show in this game. Rohit is a veteran of 51 Tests. Jaiswal was on debut. 

All that he’s been through, a debut Test century of such conviction and assurity was an incredible feat. Aged 21. He had his little moments of fortunes, but it was a knock typifying Jaiswal’s journey, promise, ability and career: one of patience, grit, solidity and skill. 

Much stiffer challenges await, of course, which will test his footwork and defensive game to a significantly higher degree with greater accuracy, consistency and threat on quicker surfaces. But so often a good start is key to earning stability, breathing space and inspiring more understanding around to evolve through strife and ultimately maximising your talent and abilities. 

The knock also once again reinforced why Indian selectors over the years have been doing their job commendably and identifying India talents above those who are not without any credit given. The latter often find public support as fans sway with their emotion and ask for equal, unrealistic treatment to every domestic performer; the former are usually products of selectors’ eye for cricketing ability and vision about the cricketer concerned at the international stage. If they didn’t, over the years, India would’ve been a significantly worse Test team. 

The decision-makers would, then, be a touch disappointed that their other identified Test debutant wasn’t given as good an opportunity to showcase his skill and overall ability in Dominica by the team management. The desync saw Ishan Kishan wait for 145.2 overs for his turn to bat and taken off after just his 20th ball in the middle as Rohit declared after a shocking pre-move gesture to the young Jharkhand left-hander. 

On a track where starting the innings was walking on a knife’s edge – as the struggling West Indies batters found out against the remarkable excellence of R Ashwin over two innings – Kishan understandably tried to bed into his innings for 19 deliveries while Warrican maintained his tight execution and leash on run-scoring, belying talks of being an ‘x-factor’ in the mould of Rishabh Pant who will attack from the word go. 

Rohit’s almost angry assertion for Kishan to quickly got off the mark so he can declare was rather disappointing, for, with nine full sessions of play remaining in the Test match, India wasted an opportunity to get a grasp of how the youngster might shape up in the longest version. 

It made little sense: if winning and winning quickly was so much of a priority, why even send the left-hander in the first place for just a run? Once you did, it shouldn’t have been about that maiden Test run but giving him a fairer opportunity to audition for the backup wicketkeeper’s slot. With Pant not around, it was even more critical. 

India might revisit this decision as a great chance missed to know more of Kishan the Test match batter with the Trinidad Test also expected to progress along the same lines. 

Kishan may not have looked convincing with the gloves or might not really be the answer with the bat either. But given that they bat deep, if Dravid and Rohit once again send Ravindra Jadeja at No.6 for this series, keeping Kishan out till the brink of declaration would be a chance denied to not just him but the team to gauge the initial markers of promise about one of their backups in an in-transition set-up. 

With a South Africa tour looming, going back to an unconvincing, underconfident Bharat or sticking with an underprepared and vulnerable Kishan then could be catastrophic unless a new hero emerges.