Virat, Rohit ODI showing can’t hide their Test frailties

After a 12-year drought, it’s suddenly raining ICC titles on India. In the same breath, we can say it’s also raining ICC tournaments generally for we have one every year now. We will have an annual world champion of cricket.

That said, India were impressive in the Champions Trophy recently. It’s not easy to live up to expectations; India were favourites and they went on to win the title as per the billing.

But there won’t be a motorcade or fans thronging the streets when a team wins the CT. It’s not a World Cup that comes once every four years.

As for 50 overs cricket, after another good look in the CT, I have come to this conclusion –

50 overs facilitates mediocrity. It’s the brand of sport you actually want to least advertise or promote. Batters out of form, starving for some international runs, come to ODIs to get them. For struggling batters, it is like an oasis in a desert.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were woefully out of form in Tests against New Zealand at home and then in Australia, but only a few days later they were back ‘in form’ at the international level.

To prove a point, Rohit Sharma even got a ODI hundred versus England at home. I can still get a big one if I really want to after that – he promptly went back to getting his entertaining cameos at the top of the order.

That’s the thing with one-day cricket. If you’re a decent enough batter, batting at the right position, you will inevitably score runs. One-day cricket does not test your defence like Test cricket does, nor does it check if you have the power game and score at a strike rate of 180 under pressure.

I wonder if the selectors, former cricketers themselves, consider all this when picking the India team for the England tour in July. It’s a few months off but it is the next big test of Indian cricket after the five-Test drubbing in Australia.

To think that Virat and Rohit after the CT are now back in form would be like thinking no different from Rohit and Virat fans; 50 overs cricket can give you success while still carrying all the issues that prevented you from getting runs in Tests. One-day form confirms just one thing, that you have one-day form, not Test form or T20 form.

To select both Rohit and Virat only on the basis of their recent CT performance would be being gullible. There was no evidence that could convince anyone that they have ironed out their Test match flaws.

Pick them if you must, but with some skepticism, hoping that there is a pleasant surprise for all of us at this late stage of their careers.

I will remain far more optimistic about Virat than Rohit, for starters because when it comes to Test cricket, Rohit is nowhere in the league of Virat.

Also, Virat is more committed to preparation that will give him the best chance to succeed. He leaves no stone unturned to control the controllable, but that long standing weakness outside off unfortunately seems out of his control.

The tour to England will be the most important tour Virat has ever been on. It will decide the legacy he leaves behind.

Virat’s Test batting average now is 46. That’s not a great batter’s average.

Virat himself would hate to be remembered by fans as a great one-day batter, because as we discussed one-day cricket is THE last place you will find batting excellence.

By batting in the right position, Tendulkar too enjoyed plundering runs in ODIs, but he is revered because he also had 51 Test hundreds.

Despite its disconnect with new age cricket fans, Test performances are where cricketers are crowned as greats, and it’s right here that Virat has slipped.

After that unbelievable series with the bat in Australia in 2015 and England in 2018, his weakness outside off that he has not been able to get rid of for almost 12 years has cost him his greatness. He is still a huge brand in Indian cricket, on a par with Tendulkar during his playing days, but now there is a big gap between their greatnesses.

Steve Smith recently retired from 50 overs cricket, and that too after getting a superb 73. Smith wants Test runs; he already averages 56 in Tests, 10 more than his contemporary Virat. I am guessing he wants to go back to averaging 60. He wants nothing else to come in his way to achieve that. He is pursuing all-time greatness. It’s a pure cricketing goal.

In Australia, it’s simpler to stay focused on such goals. In India, to become big brands can be a big distraction, and for some incentive even.