The Indian Team Selection - Thoughts

• The West Indies ODIs ( the first 2 ODIs that is)
  

Enough already about Sehwag's non-inclusion in the XV. I have been saturated by the reams of paper and TV time devoted by our media on this topic. In all the brouhaha, everyone has forgotten one tiny fact.. The Team announced is for the first 2 ODIs. Not the entire WI series, nor the SL series and certainly not the WC.
The Board, for now, needed to to show who the boss is and it has.
Two ODIs down the road, all will be forgiven and Sehwag will be back in the fold. The Board will make the right noises about how Sehwag's experience will be handy during the World Cup and Sehwag will make the right noises about being contrite.
And all will be well with the world.

More surprising was the announcement that Sachin Tendulkar has been named vice-captain, albeit for the first two ODIs. The reason for this is apparently "that Dravid’s somewhat baffling captaincy in the second innings of the Cape Town Test (which ended in a big defeat) probably convinced the selectors that an experienced ‘guide’ was needed.

More important, that the ‘guide’ should hold a position."

hmm!!! a guide who holds a position... interesting.

so where does that leave VVS?

• The World Cup Probables
  

Safely discount the following players ( they are there to make up the numbers)

Rudra Pratap Singh,VRV SinghParthiv Patel,Rohit Sharma, S. Badrinath, Ishant Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Joginder Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara.

That leaves us with

Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Suresh Raina, Ramesh Powar, Anil Kumble, Dinesh Mongia, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir.

Thats 21 players for 15 slots. By the process of elimination, discount the following players
Munaf Patel ( crocked),Ramesh Powar ( three spinners a luxury),Dinesh Mongia (out of favor), Robin Uthappa ( unproven),Gautam Gambhir (borderline decision but inexperience goes against him).

That leaves us with

Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Suresh Raina, Anil Kumble, Dinesh Karthik, Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman.

So the toss up is between VVS Laxman and Md. Kaif. And the winner is ...( drum roll here) .... VVS Laxman ( ex vice-captain of the ODI team and current vice-captain of the Test team. May not get a game, except against the Aussies but hey, thats the way it goes!!!).

So Ladies and Gentlemen, your Team India XV for the World Cup are

Rahul Dravid (capt) - out of form
Virender Sehwag - woefully out of form
Sachin Tendulkar - currently injured, but the only man capable of delivering the goods
Yuvraj Singh - recovering from injury, zero match fitness ( the very same reasons why Munaf Patel finds himself out of favor)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni - big striker of the ball, not much between the ears
Harbhajan Singh - combative off spinner, not much by way of match fitness.
Irfan Pathan - On a wing and a prayer.
Sreesanth - The find of the South African tour, his niggling aggro amounts to a lot of free runs in ODIs.
Ajit Agarkar - Like him or loathe him, be assured of a 4 ball every over.
Suresh Raina - Teacher's pet, is that you?
Anil Kumble - The other great hope.
Dinesh Karthick - spare keeper, sparer bat.
Sourav Ganguly - no ODI form to speak of, but nothing that a 8 game hit cant rectify.
Zaheer Khan - pace spearhead, but if India reaches the finals, anyone but him should bowl the first over.
VVS Laxman - gets one game. Against the Aussies.

And me... I will be rooting for the Lankans :-) ( no seriously, I think Mahela's team has the right balance to win it all ).

India's 30 probables named..

Here is the squad

World Cup probables Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Suresh Raina, Ramesh Powar, Anil Kumble, Rudra Pratap Singh, Dinesh Mongia, VRV Singh, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Sourav Ganguly, Parthiv Patel, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, S. Badrinath, Ishant Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Joginder Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara.

Here is the squad for the first two ODI's against West Indies

Squad for the first two one-day internationals against the West Indies Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar (vice-capt), Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Joginder Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh

And here is how Cricinfo spins this.

My take on all this - For all the bravado by the Chairman of Selectors ( who, IMHO, has his heart in the right place), India's World Cup squad 2007 will be virtually identical to India's World Cup squad 2003, give or take a Suresh Raina for a Dinesh Mongia. The only unfortunate to miss out will be Md. Kaif, thanks to team and selectoral shenanigans.

India's WC squad 2003

• Sourav Ganguly
• Rahul Dravid
• Virender Sehwag
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Anil Kumble
• Harbhajan Singh
• Javagal Srinath
• Zaheer Khan
• Ashish Nehra
• Dinesh Mongia
• Parthiv Patel
• Sanjay Bangar
• Ajit Agarkar
• Yuvraj Singh
• Mohammad Kaif

A player for the future!!!

Abhishek Nair - Remember the name!!!

The (sorry) tale of two young cricketers

A Team India player gets injured during the course of a One Day series. He leg is crocked and is forced to stay away from the game for the better part of a month ( or more). Despite having not played any competitive cricket of any sort, he is fast tracked into the team.

I could be talking about him or him.

I only hope that he does not get scapegoated after an India loss as he is!!

On what grounds???

Post the debacle in South Africa, the BCCI is in a tear to show that it is doing ( or is willing to do) everything the "remedy" the malaise of "dead" Indian wickets and so

BCCI to conduct workshop for curators

The Cricket Board will conduct a workshop for curators of all the state associations and units affiliated to it in March this year.
.....
"The last workshop was conducted three years ago and that is the reason it has been decided to have one more workshop for the curators," Shetty added.

Board assures 'best possible pitches' for domestic cricket

Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, revealed that plans were in place to play key matches on neutral venues that would be picked from the best of the strips available in the country. "We will be identifying the best few wickets in the country and be using these for important matches like Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup, Deodhar Trophy and semi-finals and finals of the Ranji Trophy, going away from the rotation system," said Shah. "These matches will be played on neutral grounds, which have the best wickets. This will be from next season onwards because the constitution has to be amended to make this possible."

Watch this space for further (non) developments!!!

India's tour of England - Itinerary

India tour of England schedule

Jul 07-10: v Sussex, Hove
Jul 13-15: v England A, Chelmsford
Jul 19-23: v ENGLAND, 1ST TEST, Lord's
Jul 27-31: v ENGLAND, 2ND TEST, Trent Bridge
Aug 03-05: v Sri Lanka A, Leicester
Aug 09-13: v ENGLAND, 3RD TEST, The Oval
Aug 16: v SCOTLAND, ODI, Glasgow
Aug 18: v England A, Northampton
Aug 21: v ENGLAND, 1ST ODI, Rose Bowl (d/n)
Aug 24: v ENGLAND, 2ND ODI, Bristol (d/n)
Aug 27: v ENGLAND, 3RD ODI, Edgbaston
Aug 30: v ENGLAND, 4TH ODI, Old Trafford (d/n)
Sep 02: v ENGLAND, 5TH ODI, Headingley
Sep 05: v ENGLAND, 6TH ODI, The Oval
Sep 08: v ENGLAND, 7TH ODI, Lord's

L'affaire Munaf patel

No No No.. This post is not about Munaf Patel and his match fitness and the brouhaha surrounding it.

This post is about a comment made by the Coach of the Indian Cricket Team and the Munaf Patel selection

"The choice was never between him (Munaf) and Harbhajan," Chappell held. "We wanted the balance of the batting and the bowling that we had. Harbhajan hasn't bowled for a month. We made the choices based on what we had and what we saw."

Fair enough that Harbhajan Singh had not bowled for a month and was therefore not considered for selection.

By the same logic, why was Munaf Patel considered in the playing XI when he too had not bowled for a month and was carrying an injury?

Why now?

Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Jaffer and Zaheer Khan have announced their availability for the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team.

Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble have announced their availability for the Karnataka Ranji Trophy team.

So far so good.

However, all of these worthies, with the exception of Wasim Jaffer, will be available for only ONE game..

Here is my question...Mumbai has won the last two games outright after facing relegation. Karnataka won its last game outright and is placed 2nd in Group A.

So, why should these teams break up winning combinations to accommodate players who will not render their services for more than one game in the entire Ranji season?

And what does this say of the attitude of these worthies and their respect for the premier domestic cricketing competition?

Update : Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan will not be playing the Ranji Trophy game.