The year was 1988.
In India, Mumbai’s, or rather India’s best batsman was retiring and a young Mumbai boy who would later go on to become not only India’s best but the world’s best was still plundering runs in school cricket.
In Australia, the elder half of the most famous cricketing twins, a medium pacer who could bat with solidarity was just about showing glimpses of a legendary captain that he would go on to become.
Both men would go on to inspire a generation of great men by attaining dizzying heights in both the continents.
Alright, so the year was 1988. Everything seemed to be going along expected lines and at expected pace but then something unexpected happened in two completely opposite parts of the world separated by contrasting cultures and a distance of more than 6000 miles – Rajkot and Victoria. Two kids were born who would grow up to realize they were sadly not products of their generation. While one in Rajkot had arrived on the scene late, the one in Victoria was ahead of his time, a product of the future. ALSO READ: ‘Slow and steady’ Pujara loses the race; father Arvind backs him.
In Cheteshwar Pujara‘s world, batting was equivalent to battle of attrition, defence taking precedence over attack, the bat had to be straight, the body right behind and the ball all along the carpet and the bowler had to be respected.
In Victoria, Glenn Maxwell grew up with the bat in hand only to use it as a flexible sword and make mockery of all the unwritten rules of textbook batting. He was meant to be a colourful cricketer, never meant for the whites. He was only born to entertain crowds and disrespect the bowlers, to grow up as the Amitabh Bachchan of Deewar as compared to Pujara, who was in Shashi Kapoor’s mould from the same flick. However, one thing united them both — their love for the game. Only their means of expression have turned out to be strikingly different. While Pujara believes in average, Maxwell only cares for strike rates. ALSO READ: Time to mute TV sets!
In 2012, when Maxwell registered the fastest fifty in domestic cricket, Pujara had already made those headline generating triple hundreds on the dusty wickets of India.
Both were earmarked for future and for greatness.
That was 2012.
Let’s come back to 2016.
Both find themselves out of favour from their national sides; dropped from the formats they were meant to excel in. Pujara finds himself sidelined for the third Test versus West Indies after a string of unsatisfactory scores in the two previous Tests. Maxwell has not been included in the limited-overs side for the tour of Sri Lanka. The future which looked promising till a few years back suddenly looks bleak. Pujara was expected to fill in the big boots of Rahul Dravid at number 3 and Maxwell was tasked with becoming the perfect finisher Australia wanted after retirement of Mike Hussey. But sadly both have been inconsistent despite flashes of genius.
Yes, the thoughts of fear and confusion of everything around them must be entering their brains, wondering if they should change their styles or the calendar.
If Pujara was given a time machine, he would want to take the world back in time when Test cricket meant battle of attrition and just staying on the crease rock solid. Maxwell, on the other hand, would definitely want to take the world forward to a time when possibly in future averages would not matter and batting would only be measured by the ability to clear boundaries!
However, that option is sadly unavailable to them and therefore they must follow Darwinism- change and adapt to the current times and survive in this age of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers where striking a balance between attack and defence and the judgement to know when to use what is the ultimate art of great batsmanship. ALSO READ: Thank you Virat, for pushing the boundaries of human excellence!
Pujara, therefore has to learn the art of clearing boundaries and finding gaps, while Maxwell has to learn to curb his aggression and master the art of patience if he has to survive.
Both have to go against their natural instincts and find the grit to survive in the world and match their pace with the world.
Many would counter this by saying that asking the player to curb his instincts is the worst thing to do but I believe it is only by doing so that we can differentiate the great from the good.
The players before them had to do so as well and hence Pujara and Maxwell are no exceptions.
The man who Pujara was supposed to replace, Dravid adapted his game as per the demands of his time to emerge as one of the best top order batsmen of his time while Hussey evolved to become one of the best finishers for Australia.
It is in studying Dravid’s and Hussey’s career and taking inspiration from them where the real lesson lies for Pujara and Maxwell for the history is evident with many stories of people who were reluctant to change and were then thrown into obscurity. (Virender Sehwag being only one such freaking talent to have wasted away his golden years just for his reluctance to change his game and body as per the demands of the format.)
The world has already lost many such rare talents and the onus is now upon Pujara and Maxwell to turn the tables and rise from the ruins once again, as better and more evolved versions of themselves like it happens with Pokemons.
May be the monk and the monster should just take a long vacation together and rub themselves off each other slightly.
[Dr. Devashish Palkar is a sports aficionado, news addict and a patient of OCSD ( Obsessive Compulsive Satirical Disorder)].
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