Wake up at 4 am. Crack a dozen eggs, pinch your nose, and glug
them raw. Knock off six hundred push-ups. Play ‘getting stronger’ from Rocky, on your
iPod, and blister off a fifteen mile run. A quick calorie measured breakfast, hop
over to the ground where a Ranji match is happening, knock off a double hundred
in the sapping humidity, fighting cramps and dehydration, and put your team in
a match winning situation. Come home. Hit the bed at eight thirty.
Repeat again the next day. And again. And Again.
Will doing that get me into the India test Team? That’s what
Ajinkya Rahane (and one or two other test match hopefuls) must probably be asking
himself, being ‘benched’ on the fringes of the team.
That wait just seems to have gotten longer.
How else can you explain this: One double hundred in a
domestic match and Yuvraj is right up there, among the ‘hot favorites’ to make
the Test Team? At least, that’s what the papers would have us believe.
One wonders, scratching one’s head, what is one missing here?
An average of around 35, after 37 test matches, from a batsman
who made his debut for the country 12 years ago, and will have walked this
planet 31 years in a few days; to put things in a different light: 37 test
matches of opportunities is surely not a trifling? At least a few players would
be satisfied ending their careers with that note! And at 31 years, fair money to say that Yuvraj
does not have more than 4 to 5 years of batting left in him.
Cut to the chase, the past has not shown with any degree of
consistency, that Yuvraj feels at home in the test arena (like he does in the
one-dayers and the T20s, where he is to the manner born!). Casting a gentle eye towards the future, the end
of his career seems to be looming closer on the horizon, than his sunrise debut
seemingly eons ago, and so you don’t need a Goldman-Sachs-investment-banker
type to help you decide selecting Yuvraj for the test team is also not the
greatest ‘investment’ for the future.
Is it then all about the love of the fighter, and a triumphant
one at that? A person who has literally contemplated the possibility of death
and is now back to making opposition bowlers look forward to that possibility?
Is it all about the prodigal son?
We all love fairy tales, and stories of happy comebacks,
especially in sport, for nothing can be as uplifting as a story of an underdog
fighting all odds, and ultimately, raising his arms in a triumphant roar. Having said that, at our own peril, we ignore
rational thought,cold thinking, and hard decision making.
The selectors especially (and this new committee in
particular), cannot afford to wear their hearts on their sleeves. If an unpopular decision is the order of the
day, it must be taken. Without any fear or favor, or seeking approval of the vast
and emotional majority.
And if that unpopular decision means that Yuvraj Singh needs
to play only T20s and One-dayers for India, so be it.
