The Cheerful Warriors

Dhoni. The feature that strikes you the most about this man is that he just seems to have so much fun. However grim the situation on the field, Dhoni looks relaxed and in good cheer. His eyes may be flashing, and his bat in full bludgeoning flow, but his face always appears an instant short of a grin. The man is fiercely competitive on the field, but his demeanour suggests that he knows that it’s a game. To blood the untested Yousuf Pathan in the final of the Twenty20 tournament was not strategy but a simple statement by a man not at all awed by the occasion: this is the last game, so chal yaar, you also have a go. To hand over the ball to an unknown quantity called Joginder Sharma for the last over of the match was deliriously risky, but was also an act of leadership that came straight from the heart. Sharma was the most eager among the bowlers to bowl the last over, so the captain gave him the ball. There is something of the best of West Indian cricket about this Uttarakhandi expatriate to Jharkhand: talent, power, the will to gamble, and sheer cool.

Ganguly’s comeback, of course, has been spectacular. He has scored more than 1000 test runs in the year, including a double century and his first century at his beloved Eden Gardens. In the first few matches after his return to the team, he seemed bent on doggedly accumulating runs for runs’ sake, rather than in the best interests of the team; but as he gained in confidence, one saw all the flourishes coming back: the cover drives postmarked in Paradise, those lofted golf shots on a one-way ticket to the stands. He even seemed to have, to a large extent, got over his notorious overnight record: staying unbeaten at the end of the day and invariably giving his wicket up in the first few overs the next morning. (Oops, maybe not. When I started writing this piece, Ganguly was not out on 51 against Victoria at stumps, leading a recovery after the Indian XI collapsed to 38 for 3. But next morning, when I resumed writing, Ganguly was already gone, having faced just nine more deliveries, and adding eight runs to his score). Dravid, who opened the innings, remains not out, having grafted 38 runs off 147 deliveries (yes, 147, and remember, this is a game against a state side) with two (yes, two) boundaries.

He has had a rough year, Dravid, resigning from captaincy and then getting dropped from the one-day team, but he is too gifted a player and too strong a man to be written off, ever. However, the truth remains that his captaincy was a dour reign: his refusal to enforce the follow-on on England at the Oval, with India one game up and 319 runs ahead in the first innings, was astonishing and dispiriting. And now, for the Australian tour, he has been handed a job he may not relish: opening the batting. But Dravid is no stranger to tough — even thankless — tasks. His career is a catalogue of them: keeping wickets, seeing off the new ball because the openers fell cheaply, countless doomed rearguard actions. He should gain some solace from the knowledge that every Indian cricket lover will want him to succeed in his new role. But he needs to tell himself that it’s a game.

As Dhoni knows. As Yuvraj Singh seems to know, a man who has been on fire through this year. Around these two cheerful warriors will be built the Indian cricket team of the future. And when we look back years later, we will know that the first draft of that team was written in 2007.

The writer is editor, The Financial Express sandipan.deb@expressindia.com