"I hate leaving the ball"

By the time I reach India's practice session on Wednesday morning at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Virender Sehwag has already finished his net. He's sitting to one side, grinning happily while Venkatesh Prasad's young son tries out some shots with his bat. After a minute, the boy practises leaving the ball. When Sehwag laughs, he says that he's seen batsmen do it before. "I hate leaving the ball" is the reply.

There's a relaxed air to the proceedings, with Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly knocking off early, while Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar emerge from the pavilion a fair while after the others. Much of the focus is on Dinesh Karthik, and the man who might conceivably replace him in the XI, Parthiv Patel.

Karthik first keeps to some of the young net bowlers, and is then taken on to the field by Paddy Upton, India's conditioning coach. There, another young boy throws the ball at Karthik, while Upton gets in the way, simulating a batsman playing a stroke by trying to get one of the small fielding cones on to the ball.
Karthik comes through those exercises unscathed and should survive the chop given that India won so convincingly in Galle. Being omitted now would be a terrible blow for someone who has already been treated shoddily by the selectors.

A year ago, he was one of India's most consistent batsmen in England, instrumental in the Trent Bridge opening partnership that set up the series win. But a poor series against Pakistan, albeit one that he finished with a half-century, and he was history, the man to make way as Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh eased into the playing XI.

With Mahendra Singh Dhoni sure to return for the Tests against Australia and England, neither Karthik nor Patel will have a role to play apart from perhaps ferrying drinks. In that context, dropping Karthik makes no sense at all. Retain him, and some of the confidence that characterised his gutsy batting in South Africa and England may yet return.

Late in the session, I go and stand behind the net where Prasad is bowling to Tendulkar. After one superb off-drive, Tendulkar casually asks: "Did I need to play at that?" He then draws out the line of the ball on the pitch. It's about four inches outside off stump and Prasad shrugs his shoulders and says: "I guess you could have left it."

The next ball rises from a good length on the well-grassed surface and take a thick edge through to the imaginary slip cordon. Tendulkar curses under his breath and then settles into his middle-stump guard. The delivery that follows is clipped on to the leg side, and all's well with the world again.

Comments

[CriketLover]

Fascinating. I was wondering whteher you'd have a chance to talk to these players in between these matches. How do they react to all these pressures? Surely the Fab Four must know upto some measure the criticism heaped on them. Over the years, I have seen the responses turn vitriolic, especially when people use the Net as the medium to vent their views. How an Indian player, especially one like Tendulkar, can keep his head about him is a marvel to me!

[Punit]

Dileep - another fantastic entry on the DOosra blog. This gives more insight into the workings of the Indian Test team than most deep analyses that I've read. Great job!

Should we be worried that Dravid and Ganguly knocked off early? And what of Dravid in particular? Is the wall starting to crumble? I hope not - I regard him as the outstanding batsman of the Indian Test side.