1, 2, 3,” their dance teacher marked time loudly, “Swagatham”, her students chimed in. But, as little Chittagong spread its arms to welcome the stars, Team India filed into the stadium quietly, Rahul Dravid taken aback by the shower of marigold petals, Robin Uthappa startled by the chorus, and Ramesh Powar oblivious, glued to his I-pod.Only two stopped to shake that outstretched hand, one of them gently patting the head of a beaming school kid. Hopefully, by the time the third and final one-dayer against Bangladesh is over and done with tomrrow, those two will have the entire Indian dressing room smiling, too.For Yuvraj Singh, it’s yet another opportunity to keep the faith. For Sehwag, it may be the last chance.“Yes, someone of Sehwag’s calibre should go all the way and play a bigger innings. He is not carrying on, and it is something we know that Sehwag should do. Sehwag himself knows that he has to start converting those starts into more meaningful contributions,” said Dravid, as the team started moving out from the indoor nets.And Yuvraj? “I have always felt that some of the other guys, like Yuvraj, need to be taking on a lot more responsibility. So I am just trying to use this opportunity to give them some more responsibility, and hoping that they can kick on and establish themselves,” he said.Responsibility and some runs at No 4 from Yuvraj, just some runs at No 1 from Sehwag—anyway you look at it, 2-1 or 3-0, this is what this one-day series has boiled down to for India.Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar is almost openly envious of the talent these two have, former coach Greg Chappell once wished loudly that he had some of their strokes —Sehwag’s slash over third man, Yuvraj’s incredible pick-up shot over midwicket—and Dravid can’t imagine a team without his “match-winners”. Now only, if they would score some runs.Sehwag’s figures have, of course, been dissected down to the last decimal—now, only God, and the man himself can now explain what’s going wrong. But if it’s the future that you are really worried about, then it’s Yuvraj’s baffling loss of concentration just when he has settled down that’s creasing foreheads in the Indian camp.Consider these:• His last one-day century came over a year ago, against England in Goa.• He has played 13 one-dayers since the West Indies tour last May, and landed up five times in the 20-30 trap.• He has crossed 50 only thrice since then, including that sparkling unbeaten 95 in Vizag and an awesome 83 against, well, Bermuda.And if you had to wrap up those numbers into one innings, it was that second one-dayer on Sunday. Yuvraj walked in when the 101-man Gautam Gambhir was beginning to bloom, took 10 balls to get his eye in, promptly came down the track to veteran Bangladeshi left-arm spinner Mohd Rafique and actually chipped the ball over long on for a six.Then again, timing the ball like no other player in this Indian team can, he picked up the other left-armer Abdur Razzak over long on—six, of course. And then? A casual turn of the bat, a lollypop return catch to Rafique: 24 runs in 22 balls. Just 1 in the first game.What is it, then? Is it that fatal blip in concentration, the banana peel that someone like Dravid would spot from a long way off? Is it that dodgy left knee that collapsed during that famous kho-kho fall in October, knocking him out for four months? Or is it both?The team management is clear, though—he is the future, he will come up with the right answer, soon. They have already positioned him at the crucial No 4 slot, told him that he needs to shift gears, start winning matches again, like he did against England and Pakistan in early 2006. Why, even Yuvraj, now that his slot in the XI is secure, would admit that yes, it’s time he moved to the next level.The question is: when? There’s a big season coming up ahead, and England and Australia are not exactly Bangladesh, or for that matter Ireland who they play next month. And if the 25-year-old is actually reaching for the top gear, he might as well start tomorrow—six years after his one-day debut.
