before a ball is bowled in india vs south africa test series both camps seems to be in a bit of doldrums by some unexpected turn of events...
south africa will be without their regular coach mickey arthur... who authored his resignation just before the start of south africa's tour of india... though the air is still not clear about the exact reason of his resignation... but it is believed that arthur and graeme smith's working relations had reached a nadir and ultimately coach had to move out to make way...
the disturbances in india's camp are more direct that have the potential to impact final results... dravid, laxman and yuvraj injuries have coincided at the same time... and we are staring at the possibility of indian middle order without the likes of dravid and laxman for the first time since as far as my memory goes... though i expect laxman's injury will heal in time and he will be fit to play...
i deliberately not included yuvraj's name in the list of players team india will miss coz to me he has not done anything of note yet to convince me that he really belongs to the highest form of cricket... and even if he was not injured... i would have argued to drop him in first place for the upcoming series... who according to me is blocking a spot of a deserving player more than so called seniors...
what our five wise men failed to do for bangladesh test series... the unfortunate injuries have managed to do that against much tougher opponent... to try and mark some players who can play in middle order when the legends won't be there that is... goes to show even if you fail to show courage to take decisions the circumstances can force you to take them...
the series, in this light, will serve as 'preview' of what can happen when the vacuum will be created by mass exodus of legends if selectors fail to manage the transition...
so i hope and wish when our selectors will meet tomorrow (28th january) to select team india for the south africa test series... they will think out of box and select the forgotten man of indian cricket... mohammad kaif... along with subramanium badrinath... and of course the steady murly vijay who seems to have become the 'instant fix' guy for team india of late will definitely get a place ...
a reason to celebrate...
kaif has recently scored a double ton and a century in successive innings ... has international exposure and experience of almost all conditions and situations... is still a very good fielder... basically by all means another player who is an 'instant fix'...
so my team india batting order will be... sehwag, gambhir, vijay, sachin, kaif, laxman/badrinath, dhoni, with rohit sharma and/or dinesh karthik in reserves...
it will be interesting what middle order batting combination our five wise men will come up with tomorrow...
Team India: MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, S Badrinath, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhimanyu Mithun, Wriddhiman Saha.
Board President's XI: Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma (capt), Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Nayar, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Manpreet Gony.
24 comments:
I see that even you have snubbed Che!
its not that i have snubbed che... i know for sure that they won't try out a new player... if you know what i mean... somehow che is way down their hierarchy level...
check this link about che... i have been following him since very beginning...
It's a bit contradictory if you say you want them to pick Kaif by thinking outside the box and then say you're sure they won't try a new player. Picking Kaif is tantamount to them reaching inside the box for someone who's already been tried. Not that I have anything against Kaif, I always thought he should've been batting at number 3 in ODIs. But he's had his chances and I'd prefer someone who's been better than Kaif to finally get his chance.
nice catch mahek... :)
kaif's case is different... he was dumped without explanation... while pujara is yet to feature in any of their hierarchical order and talks...
going back to kaif will be accepting that they made a mistake in dumping him altogether that is why i asked them to think out of box which was parallel to out of comfort zone...
also if you have clicked on the link given in post where i argued for che's selection in bangladesh tour when tri series was being played...
if they cannot select him for bangla tour i doubt they will select him for sa series...
I think he was dropped after just one hundred in six tests after Ganguly was dropped. Considering he played Sri Lanka, England and the West Indies on some good batting tracks I would say he didn't do enough to keep his place.
In any case, it was Ganguly who replaced him and the left-hander batted well enough to keep his place till he retired while Kaif struggled in first class cricket. He's had a good Ranji season this time but guys like Badrinath and Pujara have had multiple first class seasons in which they have scored big.
I would agree with you on Che not being picked for the series against South Africa because he wasn't considered for the tour of Bangladesh. I'm hoping against hope that they'll give him a chance, although I wish the selection Gods smile on Badri first. There's another angle to this though. The selectors didn't pick ANY middle order batsman for Bangladesh. Vijay was the only backup and he's an opening batsman. Karthik was picked as a backup keeper who can bat in the middle order.
i think in that test series he was in good nick and he made fifty something in the last test too but he was dropped and forgotten like he never existed... kaif paid the price of final frontier being broken...
Isn't this a different selection committee to the one that dumped Kaif? If so, it wasn't their mistake anyway :)
Eh? The 6 tests I'm talking about came after the final frontier was breached, after Pakistan came to India and drew the series. If anything, Kaif got his chance because the results of those two home series didn't go India's way and people finally realised Ganguly wasn't pulling his weight.
Megha
That selection committee was worse than the one that followed. The successors picked Wasim "I deserve more than $100,000 in the IPL" Jaffer for the ODI series in South Africa.
megha... yes though the selection committee was different but i find mind-set the same... :)
all in all i don't know when was the last time i was so eager and excited for test series selections...
Don't get your hopes up, SP. They'll end up picking Nohit :P
SP, I'm glad someone noticed Kaif. Since it would be a battle of world's top two teams, I don't think India would tinker a lot. But Murali Vijay needs to be backed and Badrinath deserves a place in playing XI. We have done our bit to convince Badri that he doesn't belong. Time to make amends.
infact som we have done our bit to convince both kaif and badri that they does not belong...
as i said its been a time since i was looking to team selection with this anticipation... i hope selectors will realise that they are on the verge of historic selection... that can shape the future of team india...
SP.. I dont think our selectors will give a totally new player any chance. Thts not how our selectors think. Infact i think they will go with some tried and tested players.. even if that means picking players who have been successful in ODI's and T20's..
just to add... my new link
http://crickosphere.blogspot.com/
Makes sense and could happen the way you suggest SP, but I feel somehow Rohit Sharma will be made a test batsman like Yuvraj. He is the dark horse for selection according to me.
Another man who will be plunged in is Kohli perhaps.
That leaves one spot for Badri, Vijay, Kaif and Raina to fight for.
I am wondering if Cheeka will play boh Badri and Vijay.
spot on trideep... i expect them to do the same way... tho i am not averse to pleasant surprises as well... :)
and thanks for the link i will update the blogroll...
thanks sb!
rohit indeed is dark horse in all sense... i still believe if he can tighten up on temperament front he will make a good test bat...
but as far as final xi goes i still don't see him breaking into it... while badri, kaif alongwith murli makes a good combination...
lets see... *finger crossed*
Nohit is a langda ghoda, not a dark horse.
the dark horse is made captain of bp-xi... which means, what matters in end, selectors indeed see him as lambi race ka ghoda... :)
Well, only Badri is in while Karthik is dropped for Saha. Saha needs to be expoed but did DK deserve a kick?
Bowler for bowler and Laxman is playing.
sb... i think even selectors are giving up on dk...
he blew the opportunity he got in bangla... and more than the runs he did not make... he never looked in control while batting...
its better to look for new avenues than and saha is the one they have zeroed in... :)
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