Desicritics Author: Vishnu Pavan Beeram

Satire: India's Tour of South Africa 2006 - ODI Team Selection

Vishnu Pavan Beeram — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:25:00 EST

Openers:

* Virender "Why is Jaffer here? To breathe down my neck? I can bowl... Can he bowl?" Sehwag

* Sachin "I should do well in SA ... no McGrath there" Tendulkar

* Wasim "Why am I here? If I fail in the ODIs, would I be jeopardizing my test chances?" Jaffer

Middle Order:

* Rahul "What is happening to this team? Aren't we sticking to the process enough?" Dravid

* Mohammad "For a change, I don't feel guilty for keeping Laxman out... that's Raina's job now" Kaif

* Suresh "Why is Jaffer here? Yeah Kaif is right, I admit it... I'm guilty for keeping Laxman out" Raina

* Dinesh "Sorry Laxman, feel for you, know exactly what you are going through" Mongia

Wicket-Keepers:

* Mahendra Singh "Kaarthick being in the squad doesn't affect me" Dhoni

* Dinesh "Can both keepers play? I'm a better keeper, especially off Anil Bhai's bowling" Kaarthick

Seamers:

* Irfan "Hmm... Zaheer is back... I can bat at No.3... Can he?" Pathan

* Zaheer "I can't be as bad as Irfan... my grandfather can't be as bad as Irfan" Khan

* Shantakumaran "They should have never dropped me for the Champions Trophy" Sreesanth

* Munaf "Zaheer or no Zaheer, I'm the No.1 seamer in the country" Patel

* Ajit "Damn it Morton... What did my finger do to you?" Agarkar

Spinners:

* Harbhajan "Anil Bhai, you do realize that I'm the No.1 spinner now, don't ya?" Singh

* Anil "Finally, someone sensible is heading the selectors" Kumble

Standby:

* VRV "Hope Ajit's finger is as brittle as the Indian middle order.. no, the WI middle order" Singh

Missing Names:

* VVS "Fitness? What do you want me to do? Run a marathon?" Laxman

* Ramesh "Anil Bhai, you can't do this to me" Powar

* Rudra Pratap "If they hadn't picked me for the Champions Trophy, I would have made it to SA" Singh

ICC Champions Trophy 2006: India vs Australia - What Are They Hoping For?

Vishnu Pavan Beeram — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 13:24:41 EDT

Sunday's game at Mohali between India and Australia is a virtual quarter-final. Here are some thoughts on what some of the cricketers in action would be hoping to do in that game.

Sachin Tendulkar needs 97 runs to complete 25,000 runs in international cricket. If he gets to do that in this game, India would be better placed to reach the semis. Also, his record against McGrath and Co. in recent times hasn't been that great - scores of 5, 8, 27, 12 and 4 in his last five innings against the world's best should hurt his pride. He would be real keen on setting the record straight on what is supposed to be an Aussie-friendly pitch.

Sehwag has played 13 innings against Australia so far. He scored two half-centuries in his first three innings and has failed to score any since then. He averages just 22.15 against the World's best. With his ability to bowl restrictive spells, he does bring in a fair bit of utility value even when he fails with the bat. He is the right man to open with Sachin. For India to do well in the World Cup next year, he needs to fire big time at the top of the order. The Australians would be looking to test him with the short stuff and Sehwag would hope to have some answers to that kind of bowling.

If the pitch behaves the way it did in the SA vs Pak game the other day, there is no point sending in Irfan Pathan at number three. His continued persistence at number three shows the amount of faith that the team management has in Irfan's ability as a batsman. But on a hard and bouncy WACA-like pitch, he just isn't the right man to walk in that early. Irrespective of where he bats, Irfan would be hoping to get some wickets in his opening spell. He is a much better bowler if he gets an early wicket.

M.S. Dhoni would be playing his first game against his idol, Gilchrist. He played a fairly uncharacteristic (at least for the most part) knock in the previous game and would like to play one of his regular-type knocks against the World's best.

In the 13 games that India played Australia after the World Cup, the team managed to win only twice - VVS Laxman, the so-called test specialist had scores of 102 and 103* in those 2 games. Throughout this tournament, because of the pitches on offer, the bowlers have been bowling to test-match like field settings (three slips and a forward short-leg) for most part of the innings.

As Ian Chappell said, guess it is time the batsmen played like they do in a test match. Too bad, India doesn't play its test specialist in the ODI team. Suresh Raina is in the team ahead of Laxman because of his superior fielding skills. Raina is a real live-wire on the field, but his batting has been a huge let-down. Raina would probably be replaced with either Kaif or Mongia for the next game, but he would be hoping to get one more chance to convince the selectors that he can do more with the bat.

Agarkar fractured his thumb in the game against the West Indies and Sreesanth has been flown in as his replacement. Sreesanth is likely to get a game straight away. He would be hoping to make a strong impression and embarrass the selectors for ignoring him in the first-choice squad.

Adam Gilchrist needs just one more dismissal to complete 400 victims in ODIs - he would be eager to grab any nick that comes his way (or the slips' way).

McGrath hasn't been his usual self this season. He has picked up just 4 wickets in 6 games at 37.25 apiece. Those figures pale in comparison to his overall average of 22.60. He bowled first change in the last game, but would want to have a go at Sachin and Sehwag first up in the game on Sunday.

After his exploits in Malaysia, Mitchell Johnson would want to have a real crack at the Indian top-order. It would be real interesting to see who gets to open the bowling. Something about bowling to the Indian top-order, just about everyone fancies a chance against them.

What am I hoping for? I would like to see India go in with Sreesanth, Kaif and Mongia in place of Agarkar, Yuvraj and Raina respectively (Yuvraj injured himself while playing Kho-Kho and has been ruled out for the game). Given the nature of the pitch, Dravid would want to go in with four seamers (too bad for Powar, who did so well against England). I would really like to see the Indian top-order bat well. They haven't batted well this season and I would like them (Sehwag, especially) to come real good against the World's best. Now, is that too much to ask?

NKP Salve Challenger Trophy 2006 - Blues vs Greens

Vishnu Pavan Beeram — Mon, 2 Oct 2006 23:55:44 EDT

I was reading (rather trying to read) a printed internet RFC document this morning in parallel to following the Blues vs Greens match on willow.tv. It was a 32 page document, single-side printed on regular A4 sheets. Each sheet had rich cutting-edge content on one side and absolutely nothing on the other side. Ironically, the game that I was watching was also as starkly one-sided as that.

The Blues, who went down to the Reds yesterday, put on a consummate professional performance today. The Mohammad Kaif-led Greens had absolutely no retort to offer to the Blues' onslaught. The Blues amassed 381 runs (236 of those came off just 51 scoring shots - 35 fours and 16 sixes) on the board and bundled out the Greens for a paltry 115. The following is a rundown of the day's play.

Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat. Sehwag wasn't fit to play, so the 16 year old Tanmay Srivastava was shifted from the Green team to the Blue team (doesn't it remind you of street cricket?) and asked to open with Sachin Tendulkar. Ravindra Jadeja who played in the first game made way for Rudra Pratap Singh. India Green left out Reetinder Sodhi and went in with 5 regular bowlers.

Story of the first half

The Willow Version

The day before the game, young Tanmay would have been nurturing hopes of opening the batting with Sourav Ganguly for the Green team. Come match day, he did better. He got drafted into the Blue team and got to walk out onto the field with a bat in hand alongside Sachin Tendulkar. Unfortunately for him he couldn't face more than 5 deliveries, of which 2 were wides. Balaji dug one in short and Tanmay failed to negotiate the awkward bounce, edging it to the slips.

Irfan Pathan came in next and started doing what he has been consistently doing at No.3 over the past year - hitting the ball over the in-field and taking the pressure off the batsman at the other end. By the end of the tenth over, the Blues were 55/1 with Pathan on 36 off 33 balls and Sachin on 14 off 24 balls. This is where Mohammad Kaif made his first mistake of the day. Instead of delaying the power-play overs (like Rao did in the previous game), Kaif opted to employ them straight away. In the eleventh over, the ball went past the boundary thrice as Tendulkar decided to join Pathan in the "toying with the bowlers" game.

The second power-play yielded 49 runs - at the end of 15 overs, the Blues were 104-1 with Pathan past his fifty and Sachin three short of his. But Kaif refused to do the wise thing, took the third power-play and tossed the ball to his young UP team-mate, Piyush Chawla. Sachin made a mockery of Kaif's move by clobbering 2 fours and 2 sixes in the teenager's first over. To his credit, the teenager bounced back immediately by picking up Pathan's wicket in his next over. Pathan returned to the pavilion after compiling 54 at about run a ball.

Rahul Dravid couldn't have asked for a better platform to walk in and get some form going. With Sachin playing so majestically at the other end, all that Dravid had to do was pick up singles and watch the fun from the non-striker's end. And he did just that. This is where Kaif lost the plot completely. For some inexplicable reason, he delayed the introduction of the regular off-spinner (Lahiri) into the attack and kept the part-time left-arm spin of Badani on for 4 expensive overs. Sachin reached his century in the 25th over and celebrated it immediately by lofting Badani inside out for a huge six over the cover boundary.

Ganguly was then brought on to bowl his gentle medium-pace and for some strange reason, Sachin and Rahul played him with a lot of respect. Whether they were finding it hard to put away his straight-ish deliveries in to the gaps or whether they were consciously trying hard not to gift him their wickets, we would never know. The only risky shot that was attempted off him was a paddle sweep by Sachin that went for a boundary. Sachin finally fell in the 33rd over trying to blast the off-spinner over mid-wicket. His 139 came off just 100 balls - 104 of them coming off just 24 scoring shots. 10 more overs at the crease and he would have surely ended up with a double century.

Dhoni was promoted ahead of Yuvraj and Mongia to get some batting practice. Dravid then took over the role of the aggressor. He took on Lahiri's off-spinners and smacked three sixes over the bowler's head. He got out after reaching his half century pulling Ashish Nehra straight down the throat of the lone fielder on the boundary. Yuvraj Singh sauntered in next and lofted the first ball he faced straight down the ground for a massive 6. Yuvi and Dhoni added 40 runs in 4 overs before Yuvraj finally put a smile on Praveen's face (on his 20th birthday) by gifting him with his wicket. The birthday gift was courtesy a spectacular catch by Piyush Chawla diving forward in the outfield. Mongia came and went. Dhoni then paired up with Agarkar and they smuggled 53 runs off the last 21 deliveries. Dhoni ended up with 79 off 59 balls with 6 fours. The last 10 overs yielded 109 runs.

The Leather Version

The bowling sheet for the Greens had some sorry figures. Except for Ganguly, everybody else went for over 6.5 an over. Balaji is probably the best disguiser of the slower ball among the current crop of pacers in the country. He bowls it with almost no change in his arm action. But apart from the slower balls and the ball that picked Tanmay's wicket, he seemed quite pedestrian.

Nehra did better than Balaji in terms of bowling figures. He did bowl with decent pace but for some reason kept bowling it a bit too short. He seems really fit and it would be interesting to see how fares in the domestic games in the next few months.

Praveen Kumar had a very forgettable 20th birthday as the Blues' batsmen were in no mood of gifting him anything. The Uttar Pradesh lad who comes from a family of wrestlers started off with a maiden but was smothered for 77 runs in the remaining eight overs. His bowling seriously lacks pace and on wickets which don't offer any lateral movement, his length deliveries simply sit up and invite the batsman to cream the ball to the boundary. There was a recent report in the Times of India comparing him to Kapil Dev, but from the looks of it the comparison seems to be a bit too far fetched.

Piyush Chawla went for 21 off his first over and did well to concede just 18 off his next. The kid has a good attitude and he would definitely be better for the experience. Badani bowled 4 forgettable overs. Lahiri started well but was taken apart in the end by Dravid and Dhoni.

Story of the second half

The Willow version

Every Senthil, Sundar and Ganesan in the stands wanted Ganguly to do well in the game. Win or lose, they wanted Ganguly to get stuck into the opposition and post a big score. He began well, caressed three boundaries through the off and pulled one to the mid-wicket boundary. Jaffer looked compact at the other end, but the mounting run-rate finally got to them and both of them fell playing airy shots on the offside. Ganguly gets one more chance tomorrow to redeem his reputation, hope he makes it count. Parthiv, playing at No.3 (as he did in the Top-End Series), was the only batsman to make some sort of an impression. Badani made 20 and the remaining 7 batsmen managed to put together just 9 runs. The innings folded up in the 27th over and the Blues completed a comprehensive 266 run victory.

The Leather Version

Agarkar was expensive, going at more than 6 an over in his 5 overs. Munaf Patel showed once again why the selectors consider him the best fast-bowler in the country. He bowled a great line and picked up the wickets of both the openers. RP Singh didn't pick up any wickets and went for some runs. Pathan bowled second change and ended up with impressive figures of 2/24 off 7 overs. Given the dip in his bowling form lately, the team management seems to be expecting him to do what Razzaq does for Pakistan - bat aggressively at any batting slot and pick up wickets in the middle overs. Harbhajan picked up 4 wickets for 10 and would be really happy with today's performance after going wicketless in the previous game. Mongia bowled one over, conceded a couple of boundaries and picked up the wicket of Badani. All in all, it was a very clinical bowling performance by the bowlers in blue.

The huge victory margin gave India Blue a bonus point and guaranteed a place in the final. The Greens would have to win and win big against the Reds tomorrow, if they have to reach the final.

NKP Salve Challenger Trophy 2006 - Blues vs Reds

Vishnu Pavan Beeram — Mon, 2 Oct 2006 00:24:41 EDT

FIRST SESSION

Venu Rao won the toss and elected to bat. The Reds left out at the two all-rounders (Tej Pal and Raghu) and went in with 5 regular bowlers. The Blues left out Wasim Jaffer and Rudra Pratap Singh (probably given a rest after his match-winning performance against Sialkot) and gave young Jadeja an opportunity to field with the senior side.

The Willow Version

Someone seems to have told Robin Uthappa that to get into the Indian ODI team as an opener one needs to do everything that Sehwag does at the crease and more. And that includes upper-cutting an opening bowler over the third man fence. Robin perished (10 off 8 balls) trying to do just that very early in the innings on a very good batting surface.

Gautam Gambhir was a bit slow off the blocks, got dropped in the slips by a generous Dravid early on and then settled down to play a very impressive innings. The remarkable aspect of the innings was the ease with which he started picking the gaps in the second half of his knock. He got runout going for a needless second in the 43rd over, but not before making 110 off 119 deliveries with ten 4s and one 6.

Subramaniam Badrinath played a few classy shots for boundaries, a beautifully timed straight drive down the ground and a couple of brutal square cuts that cannoned into the hoardings. He tried cutting in the air one time too many and got out (15 out of 20 balls) just when he was looking good for a big score.

Venugopal Rao started off really well with some lovely hits to the fence, at one point he had 6 boundaries in his 28 and then somehow got pinned down in the middle overs. He ended up making 67 off 101 deliveries and fell while trying to push the scoring rate. Calling him selfish for the way he played would be a bit too harsh, but as a captain a lot more was expected of him. He did stitch together a huge partnership with Gambhir, but one would have liked to see him bat a bit more aggressively in the middle overs.

Rohit Sharma came into the game with very huge expectations and he did well in a neat little cameo. Very elegant and very straight-battish in his approach, Rohit first lent good support to Gambhir and then after Gambhir's dismissal, started improvising. He fell (33 off 29 balls) in the 48th over trying to hoick Munaf out of the park.

Dinesh Kaarthick hit Bhajji for a couple of good boundaries square off the wicket and selflessly got out (11 off 9 balls) cross-batting an uppish fulltoss. Ramesh Powar paid the penalty for trying to negotiate a Munaf yorker from the crease without exercising his feet. The rest of the batsmen (the second string tail-enders are no better than the first stringers) tried putting bat to ball and managed to push the score to 280.

The Leather Version

Irfan Pathan picked up three wickets, but they were all gifted by the batsmen. There wasn't too much swing for Irfan with the new ball and given the pace with which he is bowling these days, it was fairly easy for the batsmen to negotiate him.

Munaf Patel was easily the pick of the India Blue bowlers. His first three overs costed 21 runs, but he came back well and was excellent in the slog overs. The tail-enders found it really hard to get him away and Patel ended up with three wickets for 49 runs in his 10 overs.

Agarkar was his usual self, bowling a few good deliveries interweaved with a few hit-me balls. He did bowl well in the death overs. In Agarkar and Patel, India now has a fairly decent pair of bowlers who can take care of the slam-bang overs.

There were no wickets for the slow bowlers. Harbhajan went for 58 off his ten. Mongia, Sehwag and Jadeja shared the 5th bowler's quota and went for 60 runs between them. All in all, it was a below par performance by the senior side. If not for their performance in the last 8 overs where they picked up 7 wickets, they would have ended chasing a 320+ score.

SECOND SESSION

The Willow Version

The story of the Blues' innings followed a very familiar pattern. A good start, a few sudden wickets followed by a resurrecting partnership and then finally a late-order collapse. Sachin and Sehwag walked into open and quickly got into their groove. Aided by some over-aggressive wayward short-pitched bowling by Sreesanth and Zaheer, the openers quickly raced to 70 in 10 overs, with Sachin doing the bulk of the scoring. After playing out a maiden off Sreesanth, Sachin unfurled his full repertoire of over-the-top strokes, including a pulled 6 and a charge down the pitch which ended up going over the long-on fence.

After 10 overs, Venu Rao decided not to take the power play option and introduced spin from both ends and this brought down the scoring rate a bit. Sehwag who was happy to play the second fiddle till then, tried to hit Powar out of the ground, the ball went miles into the air and VRV Singh spilled the sitter. He didn't last long though, getting himself runout (28 off 36 balls) the very next over off a no-ball.

Six runs and 10 ten balls later, Tendulkar played an uppish drive off Zaheer Khan's bowling straight into the hands of Venu Rao at short cover. Sachin seemed to be in imperious form scoring 61 off 70 balls with 44 of those runs coming in boundaries. Hope he continues this form at least till the end of the world cup.

Rahul Dravid is going through a real rough run with the bat. He was slow getting his bat down in time and got wrapped on the pads by an incutter off VRV Singh. Mahendra Singh Dhoni came in next to take advantage of the delayed introduction of the power-play overs, smashed a boundary through the offside and got out caught behind trying to smash one more.

Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Mongia then stitched together a 79 run partnership for the 5th wicket off 86 balls by playing some good sensible cricket. They made the most of some listless bowling by Ramesh Powar and just when it seemed that they would take the Blues home, Mongia fell (26 off 47 balls) trying to pull Karthik over the mid-wicket fence. Karthik struck again with the last ball off his spell as Yuvi (57 off 59 balls) tried smacking one over the in-field only to find Uthappa at mid-wicket in the way. The only good thing (apart from the opening stand) about the Blues' batting today was Yuvi's return to form. He didn't score any runs in Malaysia and it was very important that he ran into some decent form before the start of the Champions trophy. This outing should definitely put him in a good frame of mind.

Pathan and Harbhajan kept the chase interesting for a while, but they kept losing wickets and they finally fell short by 21 runs.

The Leather Version

Zaheer Khan ended up with pretty decent figures of 2 for 34 off 8.3 overs but he did really have a tough time bowling to Sachin in the first 10 overs. He kept erring in line, feeding Sachin with lots of hit-me deliveries on the leg-stump and that is definitely not a wise thing to do when you are trying to impress the selectors. He is guaranteed to have one more game in the series and he would definitely be looking to add to this performance today. The good thing is that he looks lean and really fit and hungry for some international action.

Sreesanth had a mixed outing. He bowled 3 maidens but went for 58 in the remaining 6 overs that he delivered. His opening spell to Sachin and Sehwag was quite dramatic with him staring at the batsman after every delivery. Well, there might be some who would think that you should never stare at Sachin (blasphemous; GODs aren't to be stared at), but it was really good to see the youngster get charged up and give his all. Sachin did have the last laugh smashing the Kerala speedster for 2 huge sixers. Sreesanth bowled really well to Sehwag, pitching it short and into the body and Sehwag didn't like it at all. There were some words exchanged and it was good to see that kind of intensity in a domestic game.

Murali Karthik was the pick of the bowlers for me. He was introduced into the attack in the 11th over and found turn and bounce off the very first ball that he bowled. He picked up the crucial wickets of Mongia and Yuvi, just when the two southpaws started to threaten to take the game away from the Reds. For someone who is coming back from an injury, he did enough to suggest to the selectors that he is still the third best spinner (and the best left-armer) in the country.

Ramesh Powar had a very forgettable day in the office. After being out first ball with the bat, he just couldn't get it right with the ball either. He kept bowling short and down the wrong line and it was no surprise that he went wicketless, conceding 68 off his 10 overs.

VRV Singh was the one who brought the Reds back into the game after the Blues' openers made it look very easy for the batting side. He bowled with some real good pace and steepling bounce. For me, he was the best paceman on display today. His three wickets (for 49 off 10 overs) included those of Dravid and Dhoni and the Punjab lad should be mighty pleased with his efforts for the day.

At the start of the game, Venu Rao mentioned that it was a real privilege to lead the Reds against the Senior squad and he should be really proud of the way he led today. His field placements after the initial ten overs were spot on and he kept the pressure constantly on with close-in fielders even when Yuvi and Mongia were going about doing their business effortlessly during the middle overs.

The Blues have less than 24 hours to go and recharge themselves before turning up again tomorrow against the Ganguly-present Greens. One more loss tomorrow and the fans and the media would sure be gunning for some heads to roll.

NKP Salve Challenger Trophy 2006 - The Squads

Vishnu Pavan Beeram — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:19:54 EDT

The NKP Salve Challenger Trophy gets underway in Chennai on October 1st. The limited overs tournament, which is played annually at the start of the domestic season, pits players from the national squad against the most promising players from the rest of the nation.

THE TEAMS

Blues: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Wasim Jaffer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravindra Jadeja. Coach: Ian Frazer

Last year, the team was called the "Airtel India Seniors". Dravid and Sehwag were away playing the farcical Super Series in Australia. Ganguly was supposed to captain, but he pulled out at the last minute and Kaif did the honours.

The seniors are playing a near-to-full strength squad this year. Sachin is expected to miss the first game and Wasim Jaffer has been selected to be the reserve opener for that game. Jaffer is a really good test opener and can play strokes all round the wicket, but he is not the best of movers in the outfield (and also between the wickets). Greg Chappell has this notion that a good international cricket team is one which has very little difference between its test and ODI squads and that is probably the only reason why Jaffer finds his name in this team. I would have picked someone like Shikar Dhawan instead. It would also be interesting to see if Dravid would open the innings.

Saurashtra's Ravindra Jadeja (no connection with Ajay), the promising under-19 left-arm spinner has been named as the second spinner and it would be a great experience for the lad (he isn't 18 yet) to share the dressing room with the seniors.

For Irfan Pathan, the bowler (he doesn't need to bat at No.3 even in this tournament, does he?), this is a good opportunity to get some of that lost confidence back. He wasn't in the team's preferred top 5 bowlers in Malaysia and for someone who had a great season last year with the ball, that is bound to hurt. It wouldn't also hurt if both Viru and Yuvi manage to get a few half-centuries between them before the ICC knock-out tournament.

Reds: Venugopal Rao (capt), Gautham Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Tejinder Pal Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), VRV Singh, Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, C Raghu. Coach: Robin Singh

It was called "Alchemist India A" (the players were all following their dreams, but the name had nothing to do with Paul Coelho's book) last year. The selectors obviously see some real potential in Venugopal Rao's leadership skills, for he has been the India A captain for a while now. He lost the middle order fringe spot in the national squad to Dinesh Mongia and the fact that Mongia did well in Malaysia would be playing on his mind.

Gambhir and Uthappa are the openers. Rao, Dinesh Karthik, Badrinath, the highly talented Rohit Sharma and the two all-rounders (Tejinder Pal Singh and Chandrasekhar Raghu) form a very solid middle-order pool to choose from. Tej Pal did really well for India A in the Top-End Series, while Raghu notched up a couple of classy hundreds in last season's Ranji ODI tournament. Badrinath has had many chances at this level and it is definitely time he makes these opportunities count. Dinesh Karthik is probably the best keeper in the country and he would probably be keen on showing his prowess with the bat, but I guess he realizes that it would require a super-human effort to displace Dhoni from the Indian team any time soon. Rohit Sharma's performances in the series would be keenly followed by the selectors, as there are serious indications that he might be the real answer to the national team's recent middle-order woes.

Zaheer Khan is back and he would probably get to share the new-ball with Sreesanth. Sreesanth himself would be keen on proving a point or two after being snubbed for the ICC tournament. VRV Singh is the third seamer and he is a good addition to the healthy competition among the seamers within the team. Ramesh Powar and Murali Karthik are the main spinners while Tej Pal, Raghu, Rao and Gambhir can all bowl some slow stuff.

Greens: Mohammad Kaif (capt), Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Hemang Badani, Suresh Raina, Tanmay Srivastav, Piyush Chawla, Parthiv Patel, Ashish Nehra, L Balaji, Praveen Kumar, Reetinder Sodhi, Saurasish Lahiri. Coach: Lalchand Rajput

Last year's "Kingfisher India B" is this year's India Green. Mohammad Kaif has been given the opportunity to lead the most interesting of all the three squads in the tournament. The team has 6 players who have captained India at various age-levels - 16 year old Tanmaya Srivastava (led the under-19 team which won both the test and ODI series against England earlier this year), 17 year old Piyush Chawla (led the under-19 team which recently whitewashed the neighbors across the border in both tests and ODIs), Parthiv Patel (led the under-19 team in the junior world cup 2002), Reetinder Sodhi (led the team which won the under-15 world cup in 1996), Mohammad Kaif (led the team which won the under-19 world cup in 2000) and Sourav Ganguly (the most successful skipper in the history of Indian test cricket). Add VVS Laxman (who has led Hyderabad), Badani (who has led Tamil Nadu) and Raina (who is currently leading UP against Sialkot) to the list and you get a team full of leaders.

Ganguly would in all likelihood open the innings and it would do his chances no harm if he manages to notch up a couple of big hundreds. It would be interesting to see who would walk into open with him. VVS Laxman could be one option, Parthiv Patel the other. Kaif has sent Praveen Kumar to open the innings for UP before, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does the same here. Tanmay has also opened at the under-19 level and he would definitely like the idea of walking onto the field with Sourav.

Hemang Badani will be touching 30 in a couple of months and I'm sure he realizes that he is fast running out of chances to get back into the national side. If he fails to keep the selectors interested this season, this could well be his last Challenger Series. Suresh Raina was the most comfortable of all the Indian batsmen seen at the crease in Malaysia and yet he couldn't manage to get a big score. He would be looking to use these games to try and see if he can convert those cameos into meaningful knocks. At 25, the turban-less Reetinder Singh Sodhi is fast becoming a has-been. 10 years after leading the Indian under-15 team to a memorable world cup victory, he is still struggling to make it to the Indian squad. But giving credit to him, he still somehow manages to remain in the selectors' radar.

For Ashish Nehra (who still thinks he is the fastest bowler in the country) and Laxmipathy Balaji, the two pacemen returning from injuries, this is a huge tournament. There have been quite a few changes in the Indian pace attack lately and these two would be rearing to do well and get back into the national side in no time. But it is not going to be easy at all given the way Munaf, Sreesanth and RP Singh have performed in the recent past. By selecting Praveen Kumar, the selectors have sent a clear signal to all the domestic players that strong domestic performances will definitely be rewarded. Praveen did well with both ball and bat for UP last season and he would want to continue that rich vein of form into the new season. Bengal off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri and the leggie Piyush Chawla (who scalped Sachin with a beauty in last year's edition) are the main spinners.

THE MISSING NAMES

List of players who played in last year's edition and are missing out this year : Shikar Dhawan, Sridharan Sriram, Sunny Singh, Satyajit Parab, Ranadeb Bose, Amit Bhandari, Ravi Kant Shukla, Sreekumar Nair, Neeraj Patel, Dheeraj Jadhav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Manoj Tiwari, J P Yadav, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Yousuf Pathan.

Around this time last year, Jai Prakash Yadav was part of the Indian dressing room. Less than a year later, he finds himself out of the list of top 39 ODI cricketers in the nation. He is 32 and honestly, I really don't see him being able to make a comeback from here. I feel the same about Sriram too. He is 30 and he has signed up to play for Maharashtra this year, but I doubt the transfer of address from Chennai to Pune would really help his international prospects in any way.

I feel sorry for Shikar Dhawan. I would have picked him ahead of Jaffer as the reserve opener in the Blue team. Dheeraj Jadhav was not long ago in the list of potential Indian openers and he seems to be slowly falling out of favour. Vidyut opened for the India seniors in one of the games in last year's edition and put on a big score, but I did think he was lucky to get a game then. So, I'm not surprised he is not getting any this year.

Irfan's brother Yousuf was a last minute addition last year (because Sourav pulled out) and he would be hoping for something like that to happen again. From the family's point of view, he would just be hoping Irfan would get back to some sort of form with the ball. Given the way the likes of Munaf, Sreesanth and RP have performed in the recent months and given that Nehra and Balaji are back to full fitness, Bhandari and Bose stood absolutely no chance of featuring in any of the squads. RaviKanth, Nadeem and Tiwari are still quite young and I'm sure they will get their chances again. I wasn't too thrilled with the inclusion of Sunny Singh, Satyajit Parab, Neeraj Patel and Sreekumar Nair last year and I'm not really surprised to see their names missing this time around.

SS Paul didn't play in the Challengers last year. But he was named in the list of 30 ICC Trophy probables last month. I wonder what made the selectors select him then and ignore him now.

Indian Cricket: The Forgotten Men

Vishnu Pavan Beeram — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 01:20:53 EST

Kiran More and the other Indian selectors have made it very clear that they are looking at blooding youth and just youth at every possible opportunity. This sure doesn't augur well for the future of all those domestic cricketers who are 30+ and still doing quite well. Last year, the Australian selectors handed out baggy greens to two very talented 30+ cricketers (Brad Hodge and Mike Hussey) who had kept scoring tonnes of runs in domestic cricket for over a decade. But I don't think that is something which the Indian selectors would dare to do. Cricketers in India start very young these days, almost as young as female tennis stars. The average age of the Indian debutant is getting lower by the day. If he doesn't get a look in by the powers that be before he reaches his late 20s, he is as good as forgotten. Knowing this, it is always heartening to see all those aging cricketers who turn up every season with the same enthusiasm as they did for their first season. It does take some really special motivation for them to keep trekking on and putting on one exceptional performance after another.

I've tried to pick a team from this pool of unsung heroes. Some of them have never played international cricket while others have had a small taste of it. They are all in their 30s and their chances of getting a call or a recall are as good as Ganguly and Chappell becoming best buddies again. The team of eleven includes one specialist opener, three middle order batsmen (with 24000+ runs between them), two medium pace bowling all-rounders who can open with both bat and ball, one wicket-keeper who can also open the innings, one leg-spinner, one off-spinner, one left-arm spinner and one fast bowler.

Connor Williams: His only international appearance came against South Africa in the controversial Centurion Test in 2001-02. Unfortunately for him, it ended up being named an "unofficial" test. He was picked for the home series against England that followed, but India's predilection towards makeshift openers (Deep Dasgupta was made to open) denied him a spot in the playing XI. After that, he was never really in contention. Having finished this Ranji season with 555 runs at an average of 55.5, Connor Williams would like to believe that he could repeat the same form for a few more seasons for Baroda.

Sanjay Bangar: In the limited time that he was associated with the Indian team, he did little wrong. His stint at the top level included a sparking test century in only his second game coming in at No.7, three sedate half-centuries as an anchoring opener, a match-winning 57 off 41 balls in the dying stages of a 320+ run chase against the West Indies and some testing spells of seam bowling in helpful conditions. Picked for the '03 world cup in South Africa, he did not get to play a single game. In the year following the world cup he got to play only 4 ODI games before being dumped for good. The snub by the national selectors proved beneficial for Railways, as Bangar led his team to a Ranji championship victory in the 2004-05 season.

Amol Muzumdar: He still holds the world record for the highest individual score on debut (260) at the first class level. Mumbai cricket's Mr. Dependable has so far amassed 8000+ first class runs and is still going strong. He ended up being this season's leading run-scorer in the Ranji Elite Group with 672 runs at an average of 67.20. Schooled at Sharadashram and coached by Ramakant Achrekar, Amol was expected to become the next Tendulkar. After being on the fringes for almost a decade, he now finds himself completely sidelined. For someone who showed so much potential as a youngster, it is a pity that he might have to end his career without ever getting to represent his country.

Jacob Martin: Another prolific run-getter in the domestic circuit with 8000+ runs. He was picked for three overseas (Canada, Australia and South Africa) ODI tours at the turn of the century. He got to bat on 8 occasions, made three 30+ scores and also ran himself out three times at crucial junctures. His last game for India resulted in a loss against Kenya, putting a forgetful end to an international career that never really got launched properly. He continues to be amongst runs at the domestic level and ended this Ranji season with 571 runs at a healthy average of 63.44.

Sridharan Sharath: Ardent followers of Tamil Nadu cricket still find it hard to fathom the fact that Sharath hasn't been able to break it into the national team. He has served Tamil Nadu well over a long period of time and for someone who has batted at No.5/No.6 for a majority of his career, he has a very impressive record - 8080 runs at an average of 52.81. Elegant with drives and murderous with cuts and pulls, he has single-handedly scripted many memorable wins for Tamil Nadu. He was involved in a serious career-threatening motor accident in 1994, at a time when his career was starting to blossom. He had to under-go a major surgery and the recuperation process took a while, but the way he fought back into reckoning and became a reliable force in the domestic circuit is an inspiring tale in itself.

MSK Prasad: 30 years of age is like 45 in "Indian stumper" years. When the Indian team started to distance itself from Nayan Mongia in 1999, a golden opportunity presented itself, but Prasad failed to make the most of his chances. After the disastrous 1999-2000 Australian test series in which none of the Indian batsmen could get going, the axe had to fall on someone. Prasad had been one of the many failed openers tried in the series and though he had a fairly good series behind the stumps, it came as no surprise when he was dropped for the ODI series that followed. His only notable performance at the international level came in the '99 LG cup final against South Africa at Nairobi, when he made a fighting 63 in a losing cause. He still opens the batting for Andhra and he still manages to put on impressive scores on the board. But to compete with the younger brigade (the likes of Dhoni, Kaarthick, Parthiv Patel, Ajay Ratra and Pinal Shah) for a spot in the national squad, he might have to invent a time machine.

Sairaj Bahutule: From being at the receiving end of a 664 run partnership between Tendulkar and Kambli in a Harris Shield game to playing alongside them for Mumbai at the Ranji level as a teenager, from being Kumble's first serious leg-spinning competitor to playing for India in Kumble's absence, from being the first choice replacement for Kumble to being the third (behind Piyush and Amit) choice, from leading Mumbai to a Ranji Trophy championship victory to shifting allegiance and leading Maharashtra against Mumbai - Sairaj has seen and done quite a few things in his career. In 14 years at the first class level, he has picked up 529 wickets (that is more than a handful of wickets for someone who has always been criticized for lack of variation) and is just 10 runs short of completing the "5000 runs - 500 wkts" double. By grooming young Piyush to be Kumble's apprentice, the selectors have firmly shut the door on Bahutule.

Jai P. Yadav: He is probably the only one in this list who has an outside chance of making the selectors do the unthinkable. After a poor introduction to international cricket in 2002 when he played a couple of games against the West Indies and disappeared, Yadav was given a much-deserved second chance last season. He got to play 10 ODIs but managed to put on just one meaningful performance - a spirited knock of 69 against New Zealand in Bulawayo. With Dhoni and Pathan rapidly developing into destructive world-class all-rounders, the utility value of Yadav's stock has gone down dramatically. The team-management is no longer looking for the so-called "bits and pieces" players and that should certainly hurt Yadav's chances. However with over six and half thousand runs and 200+ wickets at the first class level, he still remains one of the most consistent all-rounders in the current Indian domestic circuit.

Aashish Kapoor: There aren't many players in the Indian domestic circuit who have represented teams from all four corners of the country - Tamil Nadu in the South, Rajasthan in the West, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in the North and Tripura in the East. If he gets to play for some team in the central zone before he retires, he would have had the distinction of representing all 5 zones. As an off-spinning allrounder who came through the ranks playing a lot of junior cricket with the likes of Ganguly and Dravid, he kept the selectors interested in him for a good part of the late 90s. He got to play a handful of tests and ODIs (spread over a period of 6 years), but just couldn't cement his place for long at that level. With 392 first class wickets in 17 years of first class cricket, he is still going strong.

Ashish Winston Zaidi: If he had been born a decade late, the story of his life would have definitely turned out a lot different. He would have been remembered for lot more than just as the U.P. cricketer with a name from three different faiths (His mates call him "Amar Akbar Anthony"). For someone who was once touted to be the fastest bowler in the country, his best (and only) shot at donning the Indian colors came in 1992 when he was picked for a national training camp. He was at his peak in the early 90s and would have fancied his chances at making his international debut around the same time as Srinath. 34 years of age now and in a career that has spanned 18 years, he has managed to scalp 378 first class wickets. He is still fit and very much an integral part of the U.P. team, this year's Ranji champions. He ended the season with 30 wickets at 26.33 apiece, pretty good returns for someone who is considered a spent-force by the selectors.

Nilesh Kulkarni: Not many international cricketers have picked up a wicket off their first ball in test cricket. Also, not many have ended up with figures of 1-195 off 70 overs in their debut innings. Nilesh Kulkarni dismissed Marvan Atapattu off his first ball in that torturous '97 Colombo test in which Sri Lanka raked up a score of 952. He played only a couple of tests after that and managed to pick up only one more wicket. Unusually tall (6'4") for an Indian spinner, he has done really well for Mumbai over the years picking up 332 wickets at less than 25 apiece. He led Mumbai into the Ranji finals this season, where they lost to UP and he would be hoping to get that last step right next season.