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Robin makes the grade?

The big news is that Rabindra Ramnarayan 'Robin' Singh could end up playing his first ever Test for his adopted country this Wednesday, when India take on Zimbabwe in the one-off Test.

The theorising is simple. Zimbabwe is looking to provide a green top for tomorrow's Test, and the Indians are keen that they strengthen their batting without sacrificing their bowling.

And Robin Singh fits the bill perfectly. Says coach Anshuman Gaekwad: "He, along with Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar to a certain extent, could cover up for the fifth bowler's slot." In a Test, a fifth bowler -- or a composite -- rarely if ever has to bowl over 20, 25 overs.

Robin was sounded out about playing in the Test as early as Monday. If anything, he has looked sharper off the pitch on this tour, and has never failed with the bat on the few instances he has actually got a stint in the middle.

Robin, alongwith the rest of the team, went to the famous Victoria Falls on Monday, and was back in the nets today, looking fairly charged with the ball, making the ball climb awkwardly off a greentop practise pitch.

There are interesting dimesnions to this looming Test debut by Robin Singh. He will be the first player from Tamil Nadu to make it to the Indian team since WV Raman was given a break against the West Indies in 1989. He is also well into his 30s, which makes it the oldest debut for an Indian cricketer in nearly two decades. Dilip Doshi played against the Sri Lankans in 1984-'85 at Chennai when he was into his 30s, and only a statistician can tell as to who among the two, between Robin and Doshi, was older when he donned India cap.

If Robin is in the starting line-up tomorrow, he could be one of the two Test debutants for India, the other being Ajit Agarkar. Robin and Agarkar are not unknown commodities, thanks to their impressive one-day records, and both are expected to make their presence felt in the one-off Test.

Between his one-day debut for India in the West Indies almost a decade back, in 1989 to be exact, and now, Robin has played only 60 one-dayers for 998 runs so far and bagged 44 wickets (just by way of comparison, in the matter of last six months alone, Agarkar has bagged 50 wickets from 23 games!). He came to the scene before Sachin Tendulkar did, and by that reckoning, must have missed at least 150 one-day games in the intervening period.

The coin fell in favour of Robin Singh, and not Ajay Jadeja, simply because Robin has been a far more impressive bowler than the Haryana cricketer. Jadeja, but for his reluctance to bowl of late, could have been playing in this Test. The only outside possibility of someone replacing Robin in the line-up is Debashis Mohanty, but as said, the chances are extremely thin.

If Agarkar is India's next best hope, Zimbabwe are pinning theirs on Neil Johnson, an allrounder who played for Natal for four years, and whose papers are cleared now for him to play for Zimbabwe. Johnson is said to be quick, "chabuk (whiplash)," as Navjot Sidhu put it, even if it was second-hand knowledge delivered from the middle by Anil Kumble during his century in the three-day game against the President's Eleven last week.

Houghton says he is looking to win the Test, since draws are not helping his nation's cricket. "Indeed, they are hurting us," said Houghton. This line of thinking has brought about the inclusion of Henry Olongo in the side, who incidentally was the first black player to represent Zimbabwe. Olonga did not play the one-dayers because he can be very inaccurate, but no one doubts his ability to bowl at, sometimes, express speed.

A couple of personal landmarks are not far from the mind of two of India's stalwarts, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble. While Tendulkar is yet to get a double hundred in Test -- a lacuna he says he would like to fill asap -- Kumble is only three short of 200 Test wickets, having played 46 Tests so far. If it comes on this tour, it will give him a double, having just the other day got to his 200 ODI wickets, and become the first spinner to do so.

Mohammed Azharuddin too wants the overseas Test record of the Indians to improve, for they have won only 13 of their 149 engagements abroad.

So far, India and Zimbabwe have played two Tests with India winning the one in New Delhi in 1993. This Test thus comes after a gap of five years, even though there have been countless one-dayers played since.

Teams (from 12):

Zimbabwe: Gavin Rennie, Craig Wishart, Andy Flower, Alistair Campbell, Murray Goodwin, Heath Streak, Henry Olongo, Neil Johnson, Adam Huckle, Craig Evans, Andy Whittall and M. Mbangwa.

India: Navjot Singh Sidhu, Nayan Mongia, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Robin Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) and Ian Robinson (Zimbabwe)

Match referee: Allan Smith

Hours of play (IST): 1 to 3 pm; 3.40 to 5.40 pm; 7 to 9 pm.

Prem Panicker adds: This reference to a greentop awaiting the Indians in the one-off Test is rather intriguing.

The automatic assumption appears to be that the home side -- whenever India plays abroad -- merely has to provide a fast wicket, and then sit back and watch the Indians roll over and play dead.

I suspect there is one factor in the equation that is not being considered here. It isn't enough merely to have a greentop (even assuming that in Johnson, Streak and Mbwangwa Zimbabwe has the bowling to exploit a fast track). It is equally necessary to have the batting to take on the rival pace bowlers -- and it is this factor that I have my doubts about.

A ODI series is not exactly the right yardstick to judge such things by -- but from what I saw of the home team batsmen, I don't subscribe to the seemingly automatic assumption that a Sidhu-Dravid-Azhar-Tendulkar-Ganguly-Robin lineup will fold before the Johnson-Streak-Mbwangwa combine, whereas Rennie-Wishart-Flower-Campbell-Goodwin will be able to better withstand Srinath and Agarkar in tandem, backed by either Robin or Debashish (and this is not forgetting that Kumble, whose forte is fast, bouncy top spinners/flippers, becomes a handful on a fast wicket).

This could, thus, be one of those Tests that depend on the rival lineups' abilities to counter pace -- in other words, a game the batsmen have to win for you.