The contours of a new India in Test whites, shaped by the winds of change

Winds of change are sweeping through the Indian Test squad. It started like a whisper, lifting a few leaves off the jungle floor when the selectors moved beyond Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. When it was presumed that the air had settled, there was a surprise in store when R. Ashwin retired midway through the last away series against Australia.

And now, a sudden flux in team composition is upon us like a typhoon, as, over a span of five days, skipper Rohit Sharma retired from Tests and Virat Kohli followed suit. Both said their goodbyes through Instagram. Just like M.S. Dhoni’s exit from international cricket, other Indian stars too are using social media to convey extraordinary decisions.

The unforgiving microscope

Cricket, like all sport, has an ageism issue and the athlete going beyond 30 summers is always subjected to intense scrutiny. Every dip in form or tear in ligament is put under an unforgiving microscope. Pujara, Rahane, Ashwin, Rohit and Kohli are past their mid-thirties, a life-milestone that nudges players towards the exit-door.

In most cases, that walk towards the twilight is final. There could be the odd exception like when the English selectors leant on veterans Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting for one last hurrah for the Ashes in Australia during the 1994-95 season. A similar instance in Indian cricket involved captain Dilip Vengsarkar pushing for the recall of Aunshuman Gaekwad in the home ODIs against the West Indies in 1987.

Calming influence: K.L. Rahul will have to play the role of senior statesman in England, where his experience will come in handy. He will also form a significant part of the batting core.| Photo credit: Getty Images

In the cases of Ashwin, Rohit and Kohli, they made a choice to leave, even if the last two will still play in the blue shade in ODIs. Pujara and Rahane are still pursuing domestic cricket and at times post videos of their net sessions on X, formerly Twitter. The cumulative yield of selectors’ judgements and individual choices has left India at a tipping point in Tests while the whites need to be washed and pressed ahead of the England tour.

A sojourn Down Under seems to draw the curtains on storied careers. It did to Vengsarkar in 1992, the same effect was seen on Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman in 2012, and now Ashwin, Rohit and Kohli have joined this club. Cricketers are not immune to the promise of youth and the frailty of age, and debuts, retirements and being dropped are all inevitable.

If not a doomed clash against Australia, often the last full-stop is linked to an ICC event, and the current generation has four options: the World Cups (both ODIs and T20Is), the Champions Trophy and the World Test Championship. This wasn’t the case with an earlier bunch, locked into a lone World Cup or a significant bilateral series like the Ashes. Many would recall Javed Miandad being run out in a rousing World Cup quarterfinal at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in 1996. It was the Pakistani great’s last international outing.

Hour of reckoning: Shubman Gill has the ability to prosper in the five-day format, but has struggled to summon his best outside Asia. India will need the 25-year-old to step up and play to his potential. | Photo credit: Getty Images

The numbers that Kohli, Rohit and Ashwin have stacked up are truly staggering, but equally, a decline was evident and a churn seemed preordained. It now triggers the urgent need for a fresh unit to do battle in the five Tests in England, a series commencing in late June.

The cycle of sport

At all the critical junctures that Indian cricket dealt with in the past, a course-correction was found. When Sanjay Manjrekar and Vinod Kambli struggled to keep Sachin Tendulkar company, the 1996 England tour offered Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in the middle-order. When Tendulkar bowed out in 2013, Kohli was ready to slot himself into the hallowed No. 4 spot.

The famous spin-quartet’s exit in the late 1970s and early 80s paved the way for the singular all-round brilliance of Kapil Dev. The Haryana Hurricane, though, is still missed as India’s quest for a pace-bowling all-rounder continues. Right from Ajit Agarkar to Irfan Pathan to Stuart Binny to Hardik Pandya and now Nitish Kumar Reddy, this search is very much on.

At Old Blighty, K.L. Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah will have to play the role of senior statesmen while the young turks rally around them. A new captain too has to be appointed, and Rahul, Bumrah, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are all in the mix. Bumrah is a leading candidate. He was the vice-captain during the tour of Australia and also led in two Tests there. But the workload-management of speedsters could mean that he would miss the odd contest. And Test captaincy demands a sense of permanence.

The batting core will obviously revolve around Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Gill, and the trio has the ability to prosper. Pant offers the all-round fix as enterprising batter and agile wicketkeeper. Bumrah as the spearhead is always a clear and present danger. Surely, the Indian unit in Test whites does have a beating heart that can do duty.

Wild card: Rishabh Pant offers all-round value as an enterprising batter and agile wicketkeeper. While his ability to change the course of a game isn’t in question, it will be interesting to see how he bats in a lineup that has lost its most experienced players. | Photo credit: Getty Images

There is some speculation over Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja, about whether they too would retire from Tests. But if that doesn’t transpire and they do board the flight to Heathrow, India does have sufficient experience in its ranks — not entirely to cover for Kohli, Rohit and Ashwin, but still enough to paper over the cracks.

The worry could be over the batters promising much and then faltering in Tests. Over the last decade, be it Karun Nair or more recently Shreyas Iyer, they haven’t fully punched in their presence. Hanuma Vihari too has seemingly faded out. All three have ability, and so does Rajat Patidar. Sarfaraz Khan is there too while a buzz is building around Sai Sudarshan after Ravi Shastri backed him recently.

An existential question

Kuldeep Yadav and company are there to shore up the spin department. India does have talent aplenty and replacements will emerge organically for a set of massive boots. However, a moot point would be whether the new generation would be as invested in Tests as the one headlined by Kohli.

The five-day format demands a lot from a player and it also subjects the athlete to multiple stress-points. Cricket’s abridged versions help to gloss over inadequacies; they tend to reduce the balance between variable qualities of rival teams. Additionally, the Indian Premier League is a big draw; a modern Indian star playing all formats and then the IPL in summer would be stretched thin. Seen in that light, what Kohli and Rohit did all these years is stunning.

Cricket’s revolving door means an M. Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan leave and a Jaiswal and Gill step in. Not all replacements will flourish at the same time. Core groups are formed over an extended period even if retirements happen in a clutch — think Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath in 2007. Much will hinge on coach Gautam Gambhir and the vision he has for a rather young team. The answers will become clear under the English skies.