Poor Patel -- you've got to feel for the lad.

His only crime is that when he came out to bat in his accustomed position, he displayed the sort of grit and determination, on fast and furious tracks, that his seniors had failed to display.

That, apparently, is enough to make him the sacrificial goat, to send him out to do a job the stars don't have the stomach for.

The upshot is that he was dismissed early, trying to play a lifting Darryl Tuffey delivery down, and having the ball ricochet off his elbow onto stumps to give the bowler, yet again, a first over strike.

And now, after Laxman, we are straight into Harbhajan, and the rest of the tail, without benefit of buffer. I don't know -- what kind of logic is it that says that because a guy bats well at number 7, he makes for a number one in testing conditions?

If that logic is in fact applicable, then why not number three, Rahul Dravid? Or number four, Sachin Tendulkar? Why not elevate one of them, ask them to show their stuff?

Why throw the baby -- in Patel's case, literally as well as metaphorically -- out with the bathwater?

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