Of all the wonders in the world of sport, perhaps the most alluring is the passing of the baton. At the end of a blistering 100-metre run, a huffing sprinter slows down just enough to match the starting speed of his restless partner. One athlete is weary, wheezy, worn out. The other is robust, ravenous, raring to go. In a flurry of limbs, two outstretched arms reach out to make a tenuous transaction. The next instant, one sprinter tumbles on the side of the track to reflect on a path well run. The other darts off into the distance, holding his predecessor's legacy as he embarks on his own trailblazing journey.
Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar have been replaced by Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli at numbers 3 and 4
At long last, we've entered a year when this change of guard will begin to manifest itself. The fluid slots in the Indian line-up will solidify one by one. A new kind of professional cricketer-bred in the mercenary era of Twenty20 -that now inhabits the team, will begin to come to the fore.
Any comparison with an era of great players is fruitless, unfair, but also inevitable. Cheteshwar Pujara has already projected himself as the spiritual legatee of Dravid's patient mastery. Virat Kohli is fast emerging as Mr Reliable, bordering on Mr Formidable, at Sachin's number four slot. If you choose to conjure with statistics, the signs are promising. In his first 17 Tests, Pujara has scored 1,590 runs at an average of 66.25. Dravid, in as many matches, had 1,150 runs at 47.91. In 125 one-day internationals, Kohli has scored 5,154 runs at 51.54. In as many matches, Sachin had 4,363 runs at 40.02. But their longevity meant that Dravid's career spanned two eras and Sachin's stretched across three. Therefore the total numbers, and their cumulative impact, have made them near-impossible to emulate. Pujara and Kohli, now seen as India's twin towers, have the most to lose going forward. If they can finish this year on a high note, however, the transition will be relatively seamless.
On the bowling front, the wily Zaheer Khan is on his last leg, and though Mohammad Shami has had a wonderful entry to international cricket, the second season is the one that makes or breaks fast bowlers in this era of computer analysis. Despite Ravichandran Ashwin's 100-wicket flourish, India are still seeking a spinner who lends confidence, as evidenced by Ashwin's omission for the nondescript but ever-fortunate Ravindra Jadeja in the second Test at Durban, which South Africa won by 10 wickets.
Young badminton Star P.V.Sindhu is emerging as Saina Nehwal's successor
The story of power shifts stretches across other sports. In badminton, Saina Nehwal, still only 23, has a new compatriot on the world tour in P.V. Sindhu, who is marching inexorably towards being crowned as her successor. Sindhu, 18, won the Malaysian Open in May, defeated Chinese stalwarts Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian to become India's first medallist at the World Championships in August, and capped her year with the Macau Open title in December. In 2014, she will start flexing her muscles as a genuine top-10 player.
The balance of power in world chess shifted irrefutably from Viswanathan Anand to Norway's 23-year-old Magnus Carlsen, whose intricate management of the middle- and end-game is threatening to change the sport forever. Anand, 44, a wunderkind who went on to be a five-time world champion, first needs to win the Candidates Tournament in Russia in March, if he can be persuaded to participate in it, and then dramatically alter his own style to dethrone Carlsen in a possible rematch this November.
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