Eyeing the future without building on the past has led to a rather bleak present that is Kanpur.
What was once the ‘Manchester of the East’ still has all the symptoms of a city in transition, only it has been seven decades and some since those early days of Independence. The Indian cricket team has been in one such ‘transition’ for a little over a month ago, and the direction is unknown, lest the team end up as chaotic.
Since Ravi Shastri's exit and Rahul Dravid’s inevitable arrival as head coach, India have played New Zealand in a T20I series and come away with a 3-0 sweep.
Not one to shy away from the obvious, Dravid noted that the team was aware of the reality of the situation. In no way was the former skipper alluding to India’s constraints, he was only being considerate of New Zealand’s situation.
Having made the final of the T20 World Cup, only to lose to Australia in the final, New Zealand have been on the road a long time, and the scheduling didn’t allow them to wallow in their defeat either.
Before they could process the happenings in the UAE, they landed in India to endure a lucid nightmare. And now they’re in Kanpur for the first of two Tests against the side they only recently defeated to claim the crown of World Test Champions.
Kane Williamson is aware of the challenge ahead of him, but the Kiwi skipper has a readymade excuse, should he want one: they’re tired.
The Indian side doesn’t have the privilege, more so since Williamson and Co have said excuse. Dravid, expected to deliver as miraculously as a messiah, is now in the thick of things.
Besides the fact that bilateral T20Is do little but boost player confidence ahead of Indian Premier Leagues and such, there’s very little reason to slot them in an already-busy schedule. That cricket fatigue amongst players and audiences is part of the general conversation is good, but the economics of the sport doesn’t allow even well-intentioned organisers to give cricketers and fans a reprieve.
Irrespective, the viewership didn’t slack and watching India dominate is a good-enough recipe. Dravid knows better than to hang on to that inconsequential validation.
While it was a good start to his career, it wasn’t good enough data for him, or us, to assess the true state of the team or his own intentions and visions for the side.
But now that Test cricket is upon us, starting with the first of two Tests against New Zealand in Kanpur on November 25, we can put the short-format jolt behind us and get a proper look at what the coach has lined up.
The side led by Ajinkya Rahane is brimming with young talent, most of whom Dravid has already dealt with during his days in charge of India A and the Under-19 side so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get everyone in line. But what of identity?
Under Shastri and Virat Kohli, the side had built a reputation for being loud, in your face and hyper-aggressive even when many members of the side were, in reality, docile. Dravid’s aggression is far more sophisticated, less obvious, and will perhaps cater to the introverts in the side, but what of those who need the energy and the pump the Shastri-Kohli combine never failed to deliver on?
Dravid has spent enough time tackling large egos in the dressing room as a player to know how to handle those outliers as wards. But how much of Dravid, the player, has become Dravid, the coach?
There was hardly any time to look into those intricacies during the T20Is. Now, we all will have the luxury of time and, hopefully, ten cricket days worth of strategy to look at his evolution. In turn, he will have the time to get a long, hard look at what he got himself into.
More so, since the tour of South Africa will be upon us soon.
Meanwhile, Kanpur continues to transition without a beginning or an end, only a ‘hello, we meet again!’.
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