India need to think its strategey to indouse youngster

India's drubbing in the just-
concluded Test series in England
has signalled the urgent need
for youngsters to be blooded
into the Test team, according to
former India captain Anil Kumble. Kumble said that while it could
take time for India to return to
their best, players like Virat
Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina
and Yuvraj Singh needed to be
given an extended run to allow the rebuilding process to take
place. "They have to be given a long
rope," Kumble told AFP. "You may
not see India come back to the
top in quick time. But we have to
ensure that with these
youngsters, we remain in the top three and climb to the top
spot after a few years." Arun Lal, the former India
batsman, echoed Kumble's view.
"You cannot go on with 35 or
38-year-olds till eternity," Lal
said. "We need to infuse new
talent. What happened in England was in a way good. We needed
an awakening." India's 4-0 loss is the their first
whitewash since the three-
match series in Australia in
1999-2000, and the first by a
four-game margin since the
1967-68 tour of Australia. Since Sourav Ganguly took over the
captaincy in 2000, India's
overseas record has shown
marked improvement - India
have won 24 away Tests in the
last 11 years as compared to only four between 1980-99. However, the players responsible
for several of these wins have
already gone - Anil Kumble and
Sourav Ganguly - or are close to
retirement, while the likes of
Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, who were
part of these wins, have been
dogged by injuries recently. Kapil Dev, another former
captain, said several of these
players would be hard to
replace, making India's task that
much harder. "We were
fortunate to have such good players all at one time, but they
can't go on forever," Dev said. "It
won't be easy to replace them." Former India captain Sunil
Gavaskar said, during
commentary, that while England
were the better side, he had
not expected India to cave in so
meekly. "Losing is part of the game but for a top-ranked side
to lose so badly is inexcusable,"
he said. "England were
magnificent, they were much
superior to India and much
better prepared. But I did expect India to show more fight
than they did in the four Tests." With the Don Argus-led review of
Australian cricket getting a lot
of attention over the last week,
there has been speculation over
whether the BCCI will commission
a similar appraisal in the aftermath of the England series.
Former captain Mansur Ali Khan
Pataudi said he didn't anticipate
too many changes coming into
place. "The BCCI is not going to
show a great deal of vision," Pataudi said. "Cricket will
continue [in India] the way it is,
but I sincerely hope that some
sense does come in." Ravi Shastri, another former
captain, said it was time to look
at different players for the
different formats, with an
emphasis on Test cricket. "It's
time for Indian cricket to identify players who are specifically
suited to the different formats
of the game," Shastri wrote in
the Times of India. "A way has to
be found to encourage those
cricketers who want to give Test cricket priority. There
ought to be superior
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