Youth and experience

Since we are a young and inexperienced team, here is a suggestion -

India's ODI itinerary for the year 2008 looks like this

Tri-Series in Australia (Aus, Ind & SL) ( min 8, max 11 games)
Tri-Series in Bangladesh (Ban, Ind & SA) ( probable min 6, max 7 games)
The Asia Cup ( min 2, max 6 matches)
versus Zimbabwe ( 3 games)
versus Sri Lanka ( 5 games)
versus England ( 7 games)
versus Pakistan ( 5 games)

Effectively, India plays between 36 and 44 ODIs in the year 2008.If I were Dilip Vengsarkar or MS Dhoni or both, I would persist with the same group of players ( give or take a Yusuf Pathan) that is currently doing duty in Australia through all of these games.

The advantages are two fold

1. The sheer number of games gives us a bigger sample data to make judgments on which players are long term investments versus flashes in the pan.

2. We are playing just about all the cricketing nations in the world, barring New Zealand and the West Indies in this period. Also, we will be playing in all the four countries hosting the World Cup in 2011. By playing in different conditions and against varied opposition over the course of one year, judgments made will be quantifiable and intelligent instead of vague and speculatory.

The tangential advantage I see is that if changes have to be made before the New Zealand tour, the selectors will also have data available from the Ranji Trophy which will have commenced in October/November, thus leading to an informed selection.

Also, this whole youth versus experience debate is nonsensical in my view. What India wants is for two things to happen

1. In the immediate term, identify and groom a team that gives us the best opportunity to lift the World Cup at the Wankhede in 2011

2. In the long term, identify and nurture players who will be the backbone of the Indian lineup and who can make the seamless transition from ODI to Test cricket.

And if we do not start now, 3 years and a bit before the World Cup commences, we will end up repeating history.

And surely,this must have been the biggest lesson learnt from the disaster that was the World Cup 2007.
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On Yuvraj Singh - if I were the Indian think tank, I would jettison the move of playing him at 4 for the next couple of games atleast. And here's why -

Yuvraj lacks both form and confidence. And the longer time he has at the crease, the more time he has to think about his lack of form . And the more time the opposition has to remind him of his lack of form.

What Yuvraj needs is not time but a dose of confidence. And for that reason, I would not bat him any higher than with 5-7 overs left in the game.

Get out there, swing the willow, connect a few, run hard between the wickets and, through all this, keep the brain in the freezer.

Do this a couple of times and the form and the confidence will be back. And if not, there is always Manoj Tiwary.

Dont quite get it

Channel 9 lists the Indian line up in the following batting order

Tendulkar
Sehwag
Gambhir
Yuvraj
Uthappa
Sharma
Dhoni
Pathan
Harbhajan
Sreesanth
Sharma

Two right handers, followed by 2 left handers, followed by 3 right handers and then a left hander. Two things here

1. Shouldn't the left/right batsmen be staggered a bit more - disrupting the bowlers lines and all that
2. If India get even a half decent start, the last thing India will want is for two left handers fronting up to Murali in the middle overs.