Indian selectors have a tough task in their hand as they sit down to select players for the Test team for two Test match series against New Zealand to start in the last week of August.
There are a few tough decisions that they have to make and the biggest of them will be on the selection of VVS Laxman in the coming Test series. There have been a few people who are saying that Laxman should be dropped from the team and a youngster should be picked in place of him. This debate should not surprise Laxman as people have been questioning his spot from the past five years. There were times when Laxman was playing some match winning innings and even then people wanted him to get dropped.
One of the main reasons why Laxman’s achievements go unnoticed is the fact that he has not been the part of the Indian one-day squad for a long time. India plays a lot of one-dayers and very few Test matches, so any batsmen who plays only Test cricket will always go under the radar in this country and that has been the case with Laxman.
But this time people who are questioning his spot do have some point. Laxman is 37 and is a liability on the field. Past two series have been very bad for him. England is a place where he has always struggled, but seeing him fail in Australia was a surprise. Laxman has always been a dominant batsman in Australia since 1999 and this was the first time he failed there.
People expected Laxman to announce his retirement after the tour, but Laxman has made it very clear that he still wants to play for India and the fact is, if Laxman wants to play, there aren’t not enough reasons to drop him. He has been a prolific run-scorer for India for more than a decade and he should have the right to decide when he has to retire.
Every cricket fan will agree that Laxman has played some of the bets knocks played by an Indian batsmen and it is his habit of scoring important runs that makes him such a great player. He plays brilliantly with the tail and has scripted many great run-chases for India.
The other thing is that do we have a replacement for Laxman? We have already lost the world’s best number three batsmen Rahul Dravid and as of now we cannot afford to lose Laxman. India will definitely struggle to find Dravid’s replacement, especially outside the sub-continent and the problem will double if we force Laxman to retire. The options that we have in Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane have all flopped against West Indies A. So will they be able to replace Laxman playing against the likes of Anderson and Steyn is the question.
Pujara has looked good, but he will most likely take Dravid’s position. Rohit Sharma is the prime contender to replace VVS, but he is the man who scored 13 runs in five innings against one of the worst bowling attack very recently.
It is true that Laxman is nearing the end of his career, but he shouldn’t be forced out of the team. The player, who has done so much for his country deserves some respect towards the end of his career.
By Indian Sports News
