Those all-conquering all-rounders

Watching the Indian team struggle these days without an all-rounder, my mind goes back to the early 60s. Frank Worrell's all-conquering West Indian side had routed India 5-0 at home and then defeated England 3-1. The side was being regarded as one of the best of all time, primarily because it was said, it had the ideal combination for Test matches ­ five batsmen, two all-rounders, a wicket-keeper and three bowlers.

Almost 40 years later, that would be still be the right combination for a successful Test team. Think of any of the great Test sides, and you will see that they had one or two high-quality all-rounders. If one goes back even 80 years to the first side that is reckoned to be one of the great Test combinations of all time ­ Warwick Armstrong's formidable Australian squad of the early 20s ­ it will be observed that it had two fine all-rounders in Jack Gregory and the skipper himself.

Consider another combination that is considered one of the greatest squads of all time ­ Don Bradman's Invincibles, the Australian side of the late 40s - and you will see the name of Keith Miller figuring prominently in the many triumphs. Why, even take some of the most successful Indian teams and it can be seen that the all-rounder has played an important role in victories. The Indian team of 1971, which completed a double triumph in West Indies and England, had Abid Ali, while Eknath Solkar, because of circumstances, was also forced into a utility role, performing creditably.

The 1976 team at Port of Spain, which notched up one of the most remarkable victories in Test cricket, had Madan Lal and Mohinder Amarnath, while the teams that registered the great triumphs at Melbourne in 1981 and in England in 1986 had the omnipotent presence of Kapil Dev. At Melbourne, Kapil had Karsan Ghavri by his side, while in the twin triumphs in England five years later, there was an embarrassment of riches for, as skipper, Kapil could count on the services of Roger Binny, Madan Lal and Ravi Shastri.

The current Indian team, soldiering along without an all-rounder for some time now, can take heart from the fact that some remarkably successful sides have not possessed such a utility man. The formidable Australian team of the mid-70s under the Chappell brothers regularly fielded teams that were a combination of six batsmen, a batting wicket-keeper and four bowlers. Clive Lloyd's fearsome West Indian squad of the 80s also took the field with much the same combination in running up their record run of 11 successive wins, 26 matches without defeat, and two consecutive `blackwashes' over England.

But of course, in such circumstances, both the batting and bowling were of the awesome kind. An Australian attack of Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Max Walker and Ashley Mallett was the perfect back-up to a batting line-up that included Rick Cosker, Ian Redpath, the Chappells, Ross Edwards, Doug Walters and Rodney Marsh. Similarly, in the 80s, Clive Lloyd did not really need the services of an all-rounder when the batting consisted of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, Larry Gomes, Vivian Richards, Jeff Dujon and himself, backed by a fearsome bowling quartet of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall.

The present Indian squad has a niggling problem of a missing allrounder. But what prevents them from duplicating the feats of the Australian and West Indian sides just mentioned is that the bowling is not up to the mark, even on paper. The problem gets compounded when the batting, which on paper looks pretty solid and even exciting, does not perform up to potential. Certainly, on both form and reputation, a line-up of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, together with the promise of Shiv Sundar Das and Virender Sehwag, does not compare unfavourably with the batting of both the outstanding teams already cited ­ even if the bowling admittedly is several notches below the attacks mentioned. The onus is thus on the batsmen to come good and to play up to potential if the side is to do well. It is true that batsmen rarely win matches all on their own, but they can at least save them, can't they?