Batting for Test specialist amid calls to show intent

KOLKATA: Meltdowns of the magnitude of Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru can trigger strange mind games.

- Somshuvra Laha

Could it have been different with Cheteshwar Pujara at No. 3? What would have Rahul Dravid done? The future has supposedly arrived but not kicked down the door. And it's pretty evident Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are losing their Test moorings. This still doesn't seem to be the end of an era, but the unremitting silence since Sunday should act as the preface to a more sensible relook at the Test batting core. A specialist, perhaps?

It wasn't a bad idea till Pujara was weathering storms in Australia as the rest of the batting rallied around him. Misleading and opportunistic though was the popular narrative catching up with Pujara in the last phase of his career, slamming his batting as archaic and unsuited to Tests. Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane—another unassuming fighter—were quietly phased out at the onset of home seasons. Briefer was the stay of Hanuma Vihari, without whom India couldn't have drawn the Sydney Test that preceded the miracle at Gabba. And with them ended the practice of putting up a stone-walled resistance when everything else fails.