India's young stars hope the old ones will be missed but not mourned | Dileep Premachandran

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As Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid prepare to leave the stage, the young pretenders are waiting in the wings More... India's young stars hope the old ones will be missed but not mourned As Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid prepare to leave the stage, the young pretenders are waiting in the wings. Sachin Tendulkar was 17 when he lit up the Summer of Graham (Gooch) with a match-saving 119 not out at Old Trafford. It was his first Test century, in his ninth match. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, the 23-year-old Brian Charles Lara had the old-timers harking back to Sir Garfield Sobers as he stroked a magnificent 277 at the SCG. It was his fifth Test in the maroon cap. Half a decade later, Ricky Ponting was a year younger when he played his sixth Test. His maiden Test hundred (127) and a 268-run partnership with Matthew Elliott were pivotal in deciding the destination of the little urn. Last week, two 19-year-olds from opposite sides of the world made brilliant debut hundreds on either side of the Tasman Sea. Adrian Barath's effort was one of the few bright spots in an another depressing West Indian performance away from home, while Umar Akmal's technique and poise couldn't quite save Pakistan in a fascinating Test at Dunedin. Both have been talked about for a while. Barath was considered special by no less than Lara himself, and those who watched the Champions League Twenty20 in October quickly discovered what the fuss was about. Even in a form of the game where the ugly mow over midwicket is the default option, it was noticeable how much time he had to play his strokes and how beautifully he executed them. The Hyderabad crowds that grew up watching stylists such as ML Jaisimha and Mohammad Azharuddin took to him in a big way, just as they did to the rest of the Trinidad & Tobago side. Umar had also been cherry-picked from the Under-19 side. Long before he made his debut, those that followed domestic cricket in Pakistan were talking of how he was even better than Kamran, his older brother who also keeps wicket. Lest it be forgotten, Kamran made one of the great centuries of our age, taking Pakistan from 0 for 3 and 39 for 6 to victory against India in Karachi in 2006. The most pleasing aspect of Umar's batting at cricket's southernmost venue was his ability to play in two contrasting ways. In the first innings, with Pakistan reeling at 85 for 5, he counterattacked superbly with his brother for company. Armed with a fierce cut and a ferocious pull, he raced to 129 from just 160 balls. A whopping 96 runs came in boundaries, and the contempt with which he treated most short balls was especially heartwarming given how they've traditionally been used to soften up Asian batsmen. In the second innings, with Pakistan needing 251 for victory, he walked out with the scoreboard showing 24 for 3. This time, rather than audacious strokeplay, it was patience, rotation of strike and watchfulness that were the leitmotifs of his batting. As long as he stayed out there, Pakistan had half a chance. With no Younis Khan in the middle order and an opening pair as reassuring as a straw house in a cyclone, it was a huge mantle to thrust on a young man's shoulders. It finally needed the nous and pace of Shane Bond to dismiss him, and with it Pakistan's hopes. Pakistan have had to wait an inordinately long time for a batsman of such promise. Inzamam-ul-Haq had carried the torch lit by Hanif Mohammad and passed on to Javed Miandad, but since his retirement, some of those that have emerged have been an embarrassment, with faulty homespun techniques and little or no stomach for a Test-match fight. It was that lack of batting quality and bottle that cost Pakistan in Sri Lanka earlier this year, but if anything, the Sri Lankan drought is even more acute. It's been nearly a decade since Kumar Sangakkara entered the fray, and a whole array of pretenders such as Michael Vandort, Upul Tharanga and Malinda Warnapura have come and gone. The current batsman-in-waiting is Thilina Kandamby, whose physique and style bear striking resemblance to Arjuna Ranatunga. But at 27, he can hardly be classed as a precocious talent. Across the Palk Strait, India are on the cusp of a generational change. Given the threadbare schedule for the next 18 months, there's every possibility that the ongoing Test in Mumbai will be the last time that Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid take guard in the Mecca of Indian cricket. The void they leave behind is too large to fathom, but those fans who break into a cold sweat each time they ponder the future can take some encouragement from a crop of young players doing their time in the Ranji Trophy. On Wednesday morning, Manish Pandey scored his second century for Karnataka in his 10th first-class game. A year older than Umar and Barath, he announced himself with an IPL hundred in South Africa, and this season he's already shown encouraging signs that there's more to his game than crash, bang and wallop. Pandey, though, is well down the queue. Murali Vijay, who got his chance in the series against Sri Lanka because of Gautam Gambhir's absence at a wedding, heads it. At 25, he has six first-class hundreds in 30 games. Some reckon that his Tamil Nadu opening partner, Abhinav Mukund, is even more talented. Just 19, Mukund has already flayed seven centuries in 20 games, including a 300 not out last season. Further north, in Mumbai, you have Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane. Rohit has had plenty of opportunities in coloured clothes, but is in grave danger of sliding down the Test-contention list. He has six first-class hundreds from 32 games, a conversion rate easily eclipsed by Rahane (eight from 29), who averages close to 60. Rohit's woes are mirrored by those of Suresh Raina, another regular in the one-day side. A year older at 23, Raina has six first-class centuries from 48 games, and a worrying tendency for cameo roles rather than innings of substance. That's certainly not an accusation anyone would ever make about Cheteshwar Pujara. If he played for a more fashionable team than Saurashtra (think Derbyshire), far more would have been said and written about him. Still over a month short of his 22nd birthday, Pujara has struck 12 hundreds in 42 games, the last of them on his return from a serious knee injury that kept him away from the Knight Riders' sinking IPL ship. My pick, though, is Virat Kohli, currently captaining Delhi at the ripe old age of 21. Apart from leading India's Under-19s to glory in 2008, Kohli has knuckled down to the bread-and-butter business pretty well, scoring five first-class hundreds in 22 outings. As was said of Graeme Souness, if he was made of Lindt, he'd probably eat himself, but that shouldn't cloud any judgment of Kohli's qualities as a cricketer. You certainly can't question the commitment of someone who comes to the ground and scores 90 for his team before heading back home to cremate his father. Not the most refined shot-maker around, Kohli bats with a near absence of self-doubt. In a tour match against Australia last year, he smashed a superb hundred, seldom taking a backward step. Last week, as Delhi were humiliated by Uttar Pradesh, he made a splendid burning-deck century. With India possessing the kind of batting depth that West Indies and Pakistan don't have, he'll have to bide his time before he can think of emulating Umar and Barath. But if he and the likes of Pujara can keep their noses clean and avoid the media-traps being dug for such sporting icons as Tiger Woods, a famous batting tradition will be in capable hands.

[Sooda]

if he was made of Lindt, he'd probably eat himself Fantatstic. :cantstop: Didnt know he was a cocky git...