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Dubai: As soon as the Indian cricket team for the Australian tour was announced in Bangalore, many people questioned the logic of selecting the ageing senior players.
Doubts were raised on whether the seniors like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman still have the ability to handle the Australian bowling attack.
Many argued that the youngsters who brought glory to India by winning the Twenty20 World Cup should have been selected.
Youngsters
And when the seniors failed to even muster a total of over 200 runs in each of the innings in the Melbourne Test, it looked like those who backed the youngsters were right.
But does that justify the point that Indian youngsters could have handled the Australian attack better than the seniors?
Personally, this series will clearly show what differentiates the boys from the men. It is not easy to tame the Australians at home.
To handle the bounce and pace off the wicket requires not only experience, but also confidence and ability.
It was wrong to even expect that the youngsters could have done what these seniors, who had piled up tons of runs in international cricket, could not do.
It is important to find out whether Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, or Rohit Sharma could have done better than Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, or Sourav Ganguly before anyone raises their voice to usher in these youngsters.
Patience
Seniors should be replaced only when there is a player with a better temperament and technique.
India's chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar had once said (before the gag) that there is not enough talent in the country to match the seniors.
Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly are world-class batsmen.
No bowler in the world would say they could be easily dismissed.
The gap in standard between these four and many of the young batsmen in India's domestic cricket is huge.
One should admire Dravid's ability to score a patient half century at Sydney and Laxman's voracious appetite to score heavily against the Australians.
Tendulkar has once again proved that he is still the finest batsman in the game today.
Whenever arguments are raised against them and comments made stating that they are over the hill, what one should consider is their class.
The big four have shown that even MS Dhoni, the new face of Indian cricket, Wasim Jaffer and Yuvraj Singh have a long way to go.
The fact that India is able to challenge the top teams in the world, despite a poor bowling attack, is purely because of these greats of Indian cricket.
And on those occasions when India has lost matches it is purely because of lack of team coordination and not due to lack of talent.
One should admire Dravid's ability to score a patient half century at Sydney and Laxman's voracious appetite to score heavily against the Australians and Tendulkar has again proved he is the finest batsman in the game today...
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