The awesome crisis that is circling around Indian Cricket has to do with three of its greatest warriors, together with who have made a bit under 32000 test runs. The big3 had been everything as far as Indian batting is concerned for over a decade now and exactly there in lies the threat. The three of them together have served the Indian cricket for something like 47 years now. Anybody please let me know about a better service period in the last 50 years of test match history.

The longevity of a normal cricketer is 7-8 years which means these three have so far eaten up the space of at least eight world class batsmen this far. (Ignore another six or seven yet to come, if you don’t mind) No serious search has been seen so far for the replacements of these giants as and when they might call it a day. Speculatively, the pundits would suggest of a Rohit Sharma who would fit into the larger than the life shoes of a little man. And he is still in the wilderness of the domestic circuit and fighting it out in vein presently. Tomorrow is another day, of course.

India has no dearth in quality batters and always has a deep pool to choose from. There could be immediate replacements for even the greatest of players. Talent has never been a short supply as far as batsmen were considered. Are these batsmen grown in stature to grab the opportunities straight away as a Sewag or Gambhir did? Can’t quite disagree if one is apprehensive.

Time, the limitless entity of all has to do a lot with this. When a Virat Kohli was given a breathing space for over a substantial length of time, he did win his first battle. That is making it hard for the selectors to drop him from the one-day outfit. The mere fact that he was filling in the void created by a Sachin Tendulkar didn’t perturb him and he was more than happy to slip into the responsibilities of a top order limited over batsman. Now, nobody had any doubt over his ability as a cricketer right from the junior level when he successfully led the colts in the premier championships. At the highest level he has been struggling to keep his feet over a couple of years now. Consistently in and out of the team made it harder for the youngster and he had to wait till Tendulkar was injured.

If we have a successful one-day batsman in Suresh Raina, the reason is the time factor alone. For his talent, he too was not a comfortable starter in the international arena. He could easily have been sidelined among the Gambhirs and the Dhonis who were into the thick of things as ducks into the pond. Creditably the men who mattered showed some patience and here he is, as one of the most destructive batters down the order. His deeds are second best only because of a Yuvaraj Singh ahead in the order.

In the domestic cricket, I wonder what keeps the Subrahmanyam Badarinath and a Wasim Jaffer going when they realistically do not see even a glimpse of an opportunity to break the doors open. Merely knocking at the door- as the old cliché would tell you- is not going to make any difference whatsoever. The same goes to a Mohammad Kaif or even to a Dinesh Kartick to a good extent. Hats off to them for the level of perseverance they put on display even in such adverse situations!

There is quite an abundance of talent around lurking in the backwoods. We can’t keep on saying sorry to them for too long. The day would be not so far when we have to look around and beyond. Need to find a couple of them the vicinity.