Indian Cricket Team Review: It happens only in India!
The Indian selectors are these days not only the busiest amongst their contemporaries but also the most criticized. Once again they have failed to select a team with their mind, and gone for players who were successful in the Indian Premier League. Selectors in the rest of the world would have learnt their lesson after the recent thrashing of Men In Blue in Zimbabwe, but this happens only in India!
The good news is the exit of Suresh Raina as skipper and the return of Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain. He may not have been in the best of forms as a skipper during the Twenty20 World Cup but he is the best India ever had. The players who were rested for the Zimbabwe tri-series are also back into the side and they include names that are not regular cricketers but better ones. The unstoppable Virender Sehwag will open the innings with the in-form Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh will look to spin his magic against the opponents after missing out the Zimbabwe tour while Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra will be gearing to prove to their opponents that they still have the power to rattle.
The most notable omission from the side that will play Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the four-nation Asia Cup from June 15 is that of Sachin Tendulkar. Reports suggested before the team was announced that Tendulkar might skip the event but had the selectors been serious in their work, they might have convinced the batsman, which they didn’t. His refusal to tour Sri Lanka is as shocking as his decision not to represent India in Twenty20 internationals. The master blaster who became the first batsman to score a double century in one dayers earlier this year, hasn’t donned the Indian kit since, and had requested for an extended leave to be with his kids and family. So much for a team man!
The other ‘missing person’ from the 15-man squad is Yuvraj Singh, who has been after a lot of debate, dropped for loss of form, gain of weight and recent performance. Add to this, his partying antics that saw him get involved in a brawl in a West Indian pub, and you get a player who is not only desperate for runs, but also for attention.
The axing of Yuvraj Singh may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Dhoni, and he may be able to include a batsman who can actually score runs, a bowler who can take wickets and a fielder who can hold on to catches, than Yuvraj who tried hard but couldn’t do justice to his inclusion in the side for the past few months. He managed to score just 74 runs in five matches in the Twenty20 World Cup in April-May, while in his last 5 one day internationals, he has managed only 96 runs, 74 of which came out in one outing against the Sri Lankans in Dhaka.
The Indian selectors might have done their homework by retaining Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda and Ravichandran Ashwin from the side that either went to Twenty20 World Cup or to Zimbabwe, but they failed to realize that those who failed to impress were chosen on the basis of their form in the Indian Premier League.
Even then, they included aggressive (in IPL only so far) left-handed batsman Saurabh Tiwary in the senior side where he might get a chance against Bangladesh, and seriously not against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The 20 year old may have impressed during his stint with the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, but playing for the real Indians is the real deal, and he needs to gather all confidence he could if he is to succeed where others failed.
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