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.
posted by Prabhu @ 11:45 AM
4 Comments:
Good write up.
A few comments from my side. Yes, a 1-1 series draw is a definite failure, especialy with trescothick, vaughn, giles, simon jones and harmison out, we ought to have given them a drubbing. But Dravid's decision to bowl first, was something I could not understand, especially with the history of 4 th inning debacles in mumbai. And to his credit, sachin was the best batsman in the 4 th inning that day. He batted like it was a batting track, and we know how everybody else batted.
And as for the present line up, contrary to your characerization, I think it looks good, with or without sachin. Kaif and dhoni are more reliable than we give them credit for..wait and watch buddy :)
Raina is definitely a big talent...again, have to be consistently in the team. In and out won't help. And VRV would get his due eventually. But RP singh to me, should be given more opportunities thaht he ie being given right now. He has taken wickets every time they play him.
i dont understand the logic of kiran more deciding what is old...
Selection committe needs to have an open mind.. see the case of Damien Martyn..he is back playing for AUS.. Ganguly is too good a player to be a victim of vicissitudes of the selection panel.
-vv
dins,
etho win pannittom 1st ODI.
but the batting failed miserably.
bhajji came to our rescue with both bat and ball.
vv
ya i think BCCI shud have reprimanded him for his statement " we dont have ganguly in our scheme of things as long as the present committe is incharge". No one can shut the door on anyone. It should all be left to performances in ranji trophy etc. And you should never have a closed outlook on someone.
Even Sadagopan Ramesh can feature in Indian team next year if he scores tens of hundreds :)
I didnt like More's statement at all.
One thing I read from Telegraph India if you didnt know this already - this selection committee's tenure ends in September of this year.
Dravid's decision will be debated for times to come. but matter enna na, we played appalling cricket.
u cant win matches with that kinda performance, no matter u win the toss r lose.
ODI la Ganguly is a definitely better player. i agree.
But does he not too suffer the famous weakness as sehwag (rising delivery), also he is not the swiftest of fielders nor runner between the wickets.
IMHO the new players are better in those departments.
RP singh parava illa pa, nalla dhaan podaraan!
Sachin's presence or absence(with the kinda form the one he is in now) does not impact the performance of the team i think.
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