what a strange team for the first two ODIs - there are no middle order batsmen apart from Raina and KKD and Dhoni. The other thing missed by the reporters is that Munaf Patel has also been dropped.
More questions than answers
January 12, 2007
The Indian think tank has eight games to do what it has not been able to in four years: to wit, get the team composition right for the World Cup.
From that point of view, what can realistically be accomplished at the end of the first two ODIs against the West Indies?
Take, for starters, the openers -- and from the fact that they have picked four openers in the side, this is clearly a concern for the selectors and management.
Sourav Ganguly is back, and you would expect him to fill one of the two slots. So who is the second opener?
If the think tank was thinking of Sachin Tendulkar - and at some point a rehabilitated Virender Sehwag - then Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir become token selections.
Logically, therefore, they will look at give Uthappa a go at the top. So that is item one: whether the Karnataka lad, riding a rich vein of form, can slot into the national one day side. Gambhir, on balance, appears likely to remain on the bench.
There are four batting slots in the middle order, and Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will occupy two of them, at number three and four respectively. Who fills the two other places?
Look at the side picked for the first two ODIs, and it's difficult to figure that out -- the selectors have not picked a sufficient number of middle order players (surely a better exercise would have been to pick three possible openers, freeing up a slot for one more middle order player?).
Suresh Raina appears to have the faith of the management and with Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh both away, they are likely looking at him leading the fielding effort - so chances are, Raina will play. If he bats at five, he is punching at least one batting spot above his current weight, and that is a vulnerability.
The fourth slot is the really intriguing one: will the management play Dinesh Kartick there? If yes, the risk is that in the middle order, the team has in Raina a player who was recently dropped for lack of form, and one untested commodity in Karthik.
Or will the management gamble big time, pairing Uthappa and either Karthik or Gambhir at the top of the order, thus freeing up Ganguly to beef up the middle? On balance, that would seem counter-productive - a left-right advantage at the top, during the power plays, is too valuable to give up.
Does the batting lineup then become: Ganguly, Uthappa, Dravid, Tendulkar, Raina, Karthik, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni coming in at number seven?
Similarly, with the bowlers: Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh seem set to play, leaving one slot up for grabs: Ramesh Powar or Ajit Agarkar? The nature of the wicket will probably decide.
So the most likely starting lineup is Ganguly, Uthappa, Dravid, Tendulkar, Raina, Karthik, Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Powar/Agarkar, Zaheer, Sreesanth - and what is the first thing that strikes you about it?
The fifth bowler: India will have just Tendulkar and Ganguly, who between them necessarily have to bowl 10 overs. And if one of the four regular bowlers has an off day, the expectations from Ganguly and Tendulkar double.
The absence of Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and to an extent, of Irfan Pathan, has clearly opened up a huge hole in the fifth bowler department.
The only conceivable solution is for either Raina or Karthik to be benched, and Haryana all-rounder Joginder Sharma to be played, to provide that key fifth bowler option.
The danger? Goes without saying: an all-rounder, to occupy such a prime position, needs to be able to turn a game with either bat or ball -- and Sharma is too untried a commodity at this point.
Judging by the personnel picked for games one and two, we will not at the end of game two have any clue what the solution to the conundrum is. And at that point, we will have only six games left.
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2007/jan/12message.htmValid questions...finally something useful from Lord PP
AuthorTopic: Team announcement - Announced (Read 1260 times)
