Selection Idiosyncrasies

Yet another selection meeting and the selectors come out with yet another combination for the first three one dayers. Kiran More answering the reporters with his traditional tagline "We are looking at the future and more importantly the 2007 World Cup". His tagline seemed to be in no danger of vulnerability the last few times, but this time with India coming out of a series loss with England, its bound to raise a few questions on the selection policy. ( A 1-1 home series verdict is the same as a series loss right?!)

A few thoughts that occured to me after the team has been announced -

With Sachin out, doesnt this Indian batting order look real shaky?
Look at the batting lineup now
Sehwag
Gambhir
Dravid
Yuvraj
Kaif
Raina
Dhoni
Pathan
Harbhajan
Munaf
SreeSanth
Batting:

Sehwag looks a pale resemblance of what he was - physically he has started to resemble the yesteryear Rantanuga. Arjuna is a clever nudger of the ball never losing his wicket easily. With English bowlers reportedly seeing Sehwag's awkwardness at playing rising deliveries, he is far from a threat.
Gambhir is mercurial at best.
Raina is still untested. Kaif and Dhoni are still unreliable.
We have Dravid, Yuvi to rely upon and hope Dhoni can continue his scintillating form from the Ind-Pak series.
Doesn't a Ganguly at the top of the order make the batting order more stable? That being said - I am not a Dada fanatic, but I still feel he is a better ODI batsman than any of the Yuvi/Raina/Kaif's. I feel he is just a victim of board politics than the "look out for the future strategy crap".
And Ganguly is still a GradeA contract player! (He is still earning money sitting at home)

Bowling:
Its yet another department which the selectors have really messed up with.
Dravid after the recent fiasco will only go with 4 bowlers - 2+2 or 3+1.

If you plan on going with 2 spinners in the eleven which combo would it be Kumble/Bhajji or Bhajji/Powar? Kumble is in the form of his life ( even battingwise - trivia: he was the third highest run getter for India in the recently concluded series :) and why would you drop him from the ODI team? Every english batsman has struggled against him and yet you drop him and make him feel miserable.
Reminds me of Gilly's statement about VVS: "He always scores against us effortlessly, has made several hundreds against us and yet I read in the papers he has been dropped from the team, that puzzles me".

And then you have 5 pace bowlers selected - Pathan, Munaf, Sreesanth, Agarkar (I never understand why Agarkar get picked every time, he is harmless at best!) and RP/VRV Singh (Dont know who it is!). I am 100% sure one bowler will be changed after 3 ODI's without giving him a chance at all. What a confidence building measure!

We beat SL 6-1, RSA 3-2 Pak 4-1 letsee what we do to England. I think its going to be another close since we relied on Sachin for bowling options as well.

Later.

TGIF!

Reflections:
Why does most of indian names are only 5 letters? oru gumbal la nnu paathaa - 10 perula 6-7 have 5 letter names.
ennathaan lexington a vittu naan kilambittaalum - ange irukura gumbal e yoschu paarthaa ...
namma lexington thalai VV aagattum, RS, KS, SS, DR, AL, SB illaa muthukumar a chellama muthu nnu koopdaraathu aagattum, illatti namma cat specialist poori agattum ...
illa namma vidukathai ( antha blog a naan innum padikkave illa) /scooty pugazh PV aagattum!
ithula enna naa periyaa peraa irunthaalum surukki 5 letters aakuvaanga athu evvlo worst a irunthaalum - nalla inimaiyana sangeetha peraa irunthathai "s(a)ongi" nnu vekkarathu ellam konjam too much!
intha kandupidippa ellam blog pannanumnaa nu thonithu - but then padikkaravanga irukura varaikum enna venumnalaum blog pannalaam nu ullernthu oru kural solliyathaale post panren!

People I Know:

My amma and appa arrived in the US after a prolonged delay and a seemingly endless wait of 1 ½ days in Frankfurt airport owing to snowy conditions and inclement weather. My father called me and said all flights are cancelled and we have been rebooked in tomorrow evening’s flight. Lufthansa didn’t provide them with a hotel to stay nor did they get proper food at the airport. It was so heartening to see them at the Washington Dulles airport. They have begun settling in the US, with Indian food although they are still waiting on their lost baggage. 

Kay-Kay && Kay-Kay:

The 1 1/2 day lazy wait for me @ Washington DC in an Extended Stay America hotel provided the right kind of setting to keep watching movies. Thank god, I took my office laptop while leaving to DC, so at least I was able to get to the internet. I saw Kalaba Kaadhala and Kalvanin Kaadhali the two KK’s. The Kaadhalan has a different storyline – not the usual masala, but not the unseen also. It involves the feelings that a girl develops towards her sister’s husband and justifying her love towards him in the end as well.
The ending goes like – in love there is no distinction between the pure and the illicit one. :( Arya va thavira elaarum nallaa act kuduthu irukaanga.

The Kaadhali has a storyline suited to SJSuryah’s crass comedy and Vivek’s oft repeated jokes makes his part in the movie a liability. The surprise package in this movie is the refreshingly good looking Nayanthara. She looks nice throughout the movie. And ofcourse Yuvan’s music made sure I didn’t forward the songs. Mathapadi onnum perusa illa padathula.

Ofcourse rendu padamum paarunga – pozhuthu pogaathapo pozhuthu pogum.

Empty thoughts and mutterings:

How much did I love my old Siemens cell phone? The reason being – phone varutho illaiyo, athula minutes use aaratho illaiyo, athula daily 5 times Time paathaa kooda night “Please recharge the battery nu vanthudum”. Intha puthu phone – Motorola, phone use pannalai na almost 5 days varuthu without ever recharging. Its frustrating to say the least . Since I have moved to Cingular which generously offers roll-over minutes, I am going to soon surpass KP’s record of 1800 minutes  ( 450*4 months is it?)


Maayaa:
India and England face off at Mohali tomorrow and India is planning on going with 5 bowlers. That means – 5 batsman and Dhoni in the batting lineup. (Although you can count on Pathan as a batsman). I think in an effort to get 20 English wickets we are pushing the all-round abilities of Dhoni, Pathan, Kumble(?) just a bit too much. If they go with 5 bowlers, our batting would be deemed weak – with Sehwag not in form, Jaffer getting caught by the law of averages and Yuvi coming out of an injury. I would say it’s a risky move and its better to be safe by picking 6 batsman. Namma batting order appadi patta Maayai ( habba, I justified the title Maaya:)
Anyways, next test match Mumbai dust-bowl la thaan. (Remember the test match with Australia where we defended successfully 100 odd runs and the test match went only 20 overs into the third day?
Edit: Its already been 2 days into the test match and I have not posted this yet. Anyways the rains have made a result in this game almost impossible. So no worries.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggg…… VVS ku sangu oodhara satham kekkuthaa?