Shubman’s century justifies his No. 4 Spot

It’s never easy for someone used to going to bat at the start of the innings to wait. That said, with Gill’s organised technique and wide range of shots, he is best suited for the number where he can stabilise the innings if a couple of wickets fall early

India has made a rollicking start to the five-match series for the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy. Because of the time difference, this is being written after the first day’s play in the opening Test match at Leeds. Shubman Gill, captaining for the first time, celebrated the occasion by scoring a classy century. He had also taken the important call to bat at No. 4, where some of the greatest Indian batters have played before and scored thousands of runs and won matches for India.

For someone who started his career by opening the batting for India, to go lower down the order is a big call and the young man has justified it with this century. It is never easy for someone who is used to going to bat at the start of the innings to wait his turn to bat, as I can say with my experience. That said, with his organised technique and a wide range of shots, he is perhaps best suited for the number where he can stabilise the innings if a couple of wickets fall early or take charge if the openers have given the team a good start. That’s exactly what he has done on the opening day after Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul gave the visitors just the platform they were looking for. Rahul, who was batting splendidly lost his wicket chasing a wide half-volley and Sai Sudharsan anxious to get off the mark also played at a delivery going down the leg-side to be caught brilliantly by the wicket-keeper. Jaiswal carried on when the skipper joined him and it was exhilarating batting from their swords as they cut, drove and pulled the English attack to all parts of the ground. The vice-captain, Rishabh Pant, joined the skipper at the fall of Jaiswal’s wicket and together they took India well past 350 which is just incredible for a team asked to bat first by the home team captain.

On the eve of the series, the ECB announced that it would be played for a new Trophy called the Anderson - Tendulkar Trophy.  With that decision, the Pataudi Trophy was given the goodbye. 

Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy

The ECB is fully entitled to call the series by any name they choose but for most, if not all, Indian cricket lovers it is jarring to know that Anderson’s name comes first.  Not only is Sachin Tendulkar along with Kapil Dev the greatest Indian cricketer, but also senior to Anderson by more than a dozen years. He is numero uno as far as runs and centuries are concerned in Test cricket but also at the one-day level too he has more runs than anybody else.  Anderson is third in the list of wicket takers in Test cricket and his record is nowhere as good as Tendulkar in one-day cricket. Tendulkar is also part of a World cup-winning team which Anderson has not been. Jimmy Anderson was a terrific bowler but mainly in English conditions and his record away is nowhere near as good as Tendulkar’s is. So, by all accounts Tendulkar’s name should come first. This argument that they are going by the letters of the alphabet where the letter A comes before T is such a lame one for there’s simply no comparison with what Tendulkar has done and achieved and what Anderson has for their respective countries. Please don’t misunderstand, there’s massive respect for Anderson but as an Indian, for me Tendulkar will always be above him. I also urge all Indian cricket lovers including the Indian media to call it the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy.

Before some people start to ask whether I am angling for my name to be ahead of Allan Border for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, let me remind them that Allan who, by the way, is a good friend, has scored more runs than me and also taken more wickets and catches in both forms of the game. He also captained Australia to their first World Cup win. So, in terms of numbers, he is far better and deserves his name to be first on the Trophy.

This method of going by alphabetical letters of the surname is okay for numbering the players but here again there has to be an understanding that the captain in the first match the country plays in any format, be it Test cricket, one-day internationals and T20 cricket, has to be number one. After all he is the first one on the field for the toss and then whether the team is batting or fielding should make no difference and the other ten members of that first ever team in that format can he numbered according to the alphabetical order of the surnames. So, Col CK Nayudu, who was India’s first Test captain, should be number one and then the other members of the team. Similarly, Ajit Wadekar, who captained India in its first ODI, should be number one and not number 11 simply because his last name begins with a W. He was on the field before anybody else when he went for the toss and so rightfully should be number one. It would be wonderful if the BCCI could make this change for the numbers given to the Test, ODI and T20 players in India’s first game in these formats.  After that, the numbers can be according to the alphabet for the subsequent matches.

Pataudi medallion 

The announcement of the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy also said that respect would be given to the Pataudis by having a medallion for the captain of the team winning the series. Why the captain and what if the series is drawn? That’s why it would have been better to have had a Pataudi medal for the man of the match for every Test, culminating in the Pataudi Trophy for the player of the series. This way, the Pataudis will be remembered after every Test match played as well as after the series is finished in England.

It would be interesting to hear what Indian cricket lovers feel on this subject.

Professional Management Group

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