BLUNDER TO WONDER, DOWN UNDER

HOW THE INDIAN TEAM THAT VISITED AUSTRALIA FOR THE 1999-2000 SERIES COMPARES WITH THE CURRENT SIDE

- ANIRUDH MADHAVAN

RISHABH PANT WAS a toddler in Roorkee when M.S.K. Prasad, India’s wicket-keeper, walked out to bat in Adelaide in the 19992000 Test series. Nearly 20 years later, Pant walked to the middle in Adelaide as India’s wicket-keeper; as the chief of the selection committee, Prasad had green-lighted Pant’s entry into the team.

Back in 2000, in THE WEEK’s cover story ‘Sitting ducks for the Kangaroos’, former Australian batsman Dean Jones had said, “M.S.K. Prasad has the goods. The wicket-keeping problem will eradicate itself if he is given longer time and confidence.”

Unfortunately for Prasad, his career petered out soon enough. But, perhaps, as selector, this made him want to persist with a keeper for longer, and Pant was given many a chance after the Australia series. He is, however, yet to cement his place in the side.

If India was playing musical chairs with its wicket-keepers then—Nayan Mongia was nearing the end of his career and the next one or two years saw a slew of keepers, including Vijay Dahiya, Saba Karim, M.S.K. Prasad and Sameer Dighe—it seems to be in no better a position now. In a post-M.S. Dhoni era, the likes of Wriddhiman Saha, Pant and Sanju Samson are vying for a permanent place in the team.

The keeping quandary, however, was perhaps the only arguable similarity between the Indian teams of 2000 and 2019. In its cover story, THE WEEK had summed up the 1999-2000 series thus: “It may sound cruel. Even unpatriotic. Some folks feel that comparing the Indian team with their Australian counterparts is likening a company with an ISO 9001 rating to one that is controlled by feuding partners. One has men vying with each other for excellence, the other is choc-a-bloc with non-performing assets.”