Will India ever have a chance of finding its Hussey?

Michael Hussey, Mr Cricket to some, will begin his last Test on Thursday against Sri Lanka. Now, he didn’t have a career that lasted a decade – in fact, it lasted just over seven years. But what a career it was… 78 matches, 6183 runs, average of 51.52, 19 centuries, 29 fifties. By the time, Hussey made his Test debut he was already 30 and despite this, he is Australia’s 12th highest run-scorer. The left-hander had more than 10,000 first-class runs before he played a Test – other Australians like Justin Langer, Brad Hodge, Darren Lehmann and Matthew Elliott were the same. So why is it that in India the sell-by date for a cricketer seems to be 26. If you’ve not been spotted by then, it unlikely that you will ever get a chance again. Does it matter if you are 24 or 30? In India, it does. But the only thing that should matter is whether they are scoring runs. With many of India’s experienced cricketers retiring, there is a vacuum in the team. The selectors often choose to replace experience with potential (read youngsters) but that may not always be the best answer. Over the last few years – we have seen a plethora of young cricketers make their debuts for India – Bhuvneshwar Kumar (debut at 22), R Ashwin (24), Ishant Sharma (19), Pragyan Ojha (24), Ajinkya Rahane (24), Cheteshwar Pujara (24), Parwinder Awana (26), Yusuf Pathan (26), Ashok Dinda (26), Umesh Yadav (24), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (24), Virat Kohli (20). [caption id=“attachment_576246” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Can Jaffer do a job for Indian cricket? PTI[/caption] A trial and error method has been adopted in their cases. Some have done well but there are others who have failed. Youth does not guarantee success – in fact, youth is just potential – they haven’t learnt the ins and outs of the game. You haven’t seen them spend years honing their craft. It, however, remains a mystery why India’s selectors don’t look at players past the age of 26 with any regularity. While the young player has potential, the older Ranji veterans have experience, maturity and battle-hardened grit and if they can be harnessed well – they could serve India well especially in an era where the team needs all the help it can get. For some reason, India seems to expect every player picked to have a decade-long career. But is that what we can realistically expect. We got lucky with Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, but if you go by numbers, that was an anomaly. It’s pretty rare for careers to last that long. So sometimes, shorter-term measures are not a bad thing. Syed Kirmani- made his Test debut after turning 26, played 88 Tests, Dilip Doshi – made his Test debut at 31 in 1979, played 33 Tests, Venkatesh Prasad- made his Test debut after turning 26, played 33 Tests, Aakash Chopra – made his Test debut after turning 26, played 10 Tests but what a tour of Australia he had, Sanjay Bangar, who retired yesterday, made his Test debut after crossing 29, played 12 Tests but remember Headingley; remember him taking all those blows on the body – that was veteran stuff. So even though India wants to be looked at as a country that promotes youth, it must not dismiss the older generation. Sometimes, people take a while to find their true calling; sometimes people take time to find their true selves and sometimes, it takes more than a few tries to succeed. For example, if India can get a couple of good years from the 34-year-old Wasim Jaffer would it be a bad thing? Karnataka’s CM Gautam, 28, is the leading scorer in Ranji Trophy with 938 runs in 8 matches. Can India use him? 29-year-old VA Jagadeesh, of Kerala, is the third highest scorer with 871 runs. Paras Dogra, 28, has rattled up 786 runs. Pankaj Singh from Rajasthan, for example, has picked 150 wickets in the last four domestic seasons. Ramesh Powar is now 34 but he too was shunned. Now, these guys aren’t young – but they are effective. Is there a spot for them? Many of India’s 27-30 year-olds would have been denied a spot in the team because of the golden generation and now they have the hunger to rise up to the occasion. But will they get a chance? Will the selectors ever look past the ‘youth is right’ policy. Will India ever have a chance of finding its Hussey? Stats - Rajneesh Gupta