Kaif is now a biffer also

Mohammed Kaif, after being dropped from the national team and consciousness, went below raar and set about playing cricket quietly. What soon became a murmur is now a buzz - never din-clang-drumroll. There were reports of heavy domestic scoring, but never quite enough to dislodge someone - ODIs or Tests. Once tipped as a future captain, the Kaifmachine had a problem with whacking the lofted shot out of the ground, though he was a master at working the angles to run, run, run. Not that it would have really mattered - his last Test innings, a classic in resistance against England at Nagpur, barely permitting India to escape with a draw, was ignored and he was dropped. So Kaif went back to the "provinces" and improved his hitting ability. And that was evident yesterday.

Legacy in a royal mess

Without Smith, Yousuf and Kamran, the Royals will rely on the combined might of Warne, Lehman, Kaif and Yusuf Pathan to win matches. Pitted against the megawatt stardom in all other teams, they look like domestic goat that wandered into the forest. At night. After a bath in chicken blood, wearing neon signs that say "Red Meat".

But one man, known as the Best Captain Australia Never Had, can change all that. On his day, and there are several of them, all he needs is four overs, to reduce grown men to tears. And that has nothing to do with their wives, or daughters. Or mothers. It will help if Warne came into bowl with a few wickets down. Where's Morne Morkel? Sohail Tanvir should be here soon as well.

And Dmitri? The Royals don't need others to gain what might turn out to be an unassailable lead.

Kaif

"It's been a strange journey for Kaif, a man often dubbed a future India captain till recently — not just because of an ability to keep a steady head on his shoulders in pressure-cooker situations and win matches for India coming in at a difficult No. 7, but also because he showed none of the off-field quirks of character or unsteadiness that some of his contemporaries displayed. "

Read the full text of an interaction with Mohammed Kaif, that appeared in the Hindustan Times.