Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Selection-As absurd as ever

Every cricket follower,every blogger knows how weird and unreasonable the selection has been under Kris Srikkanth.It's become a bit of a joke to be frank.

Firstly,the way spinners have been rotated is quite unbelievable.Everyone has been picked from Piyush Chawla to Ravichandran Ashwin.Now,the same is being done with opening batsmen.With Gautam Gambhir as well as Virender Sehwag out due to 'minor' injuries,they had to pick a opener to accompany recent centurion Murali Vijay.For that,Shikhar Dhawan has been selected.Dhawan is a talented youngster and with some superb performances he has earned a call-up.But,my question is why was Abhinav Mukund in squad for second test,if he has to sit out a test and then get dropped again.I am not against Dhawan,but juggling between youngsters could only upset their mindset.We had seen a mindless issue being created earlier,when Ishant Sharma was picked for a South African tour,only to be later told,that he isn't part of it.

Amit Mishra too,was picked for the test series,but had to sit out both the tests since Pragyan Ojha was preferred over him.In the ODI series,they have decided to rest both Ojha and main spinner Harbhajan.To replace Ojha,they have gone with Ravichandran Ashwin.It's not that Mishra is considered a test specialist,yet,in spite of being the 3rd spinner for the test squad,he fails to make it to ODI squad.Maybe Ashwin's bowling with CSK has impressed Dhoni and he prefers so called all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja as 2nd spinner.But if that is the case,then Ashwin should have been picked for the tests as well and Mishra should have been allowed to get match practice in the Challenger Series.This way,Mishra has been sitting out without any match practice for so long.

Last time when Ricky Ponting's men had visited India,even with 7 players out due to injury,they won 4-2 in 7-match series after one match was washed out.Yet,India has gone with a second grade side in this series,resting Zaheer Khan,Harbhajan,Ojha and also Sachin Tendulkar.After such a competitive test series,why would one rest so many key players ??

The hardest part for me to digest is resting Sachin Tendulkar again.Almost the whole of India wants Tendulkar to help India win the 2011 WC.How are we giving him one-day practice by resting him from every one-day series and just playing him in tests.The last ODI he played was back in February this year.

I have to say,in spite of the immense respect I have for the little master,I just can't justify his decision to rest the Asia Cup as well as the Tri-series in Sri Lanka and then take part in Champions League for Mumbai.How can he put his club before his country ??

Just not acceptable.Most Indians keep singing praises of him all the time,but sometimes one needs to be critical of even him.

3 comments:

  1. I was a little bemused when he rested for the Asia Cup. Lets put things into perspective.

    Due to contractual obligations, SRT had to appear for Mumbai Indians. So I would have expected him to play in Asia Cup to kick off this season and then take a few rests in between. Ideally, he should have played Australia right now and then rested in 2 or 3 ODIs against the Kiwis in November. So this selection comes as a bit of a surprise to me.

    I don't know whether Sachin requested for a rest or was rested by Cheeka on his own accord. But yes, for once, I do feel that the logic is misplaced.

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  2. Shri,frankly I think if Sachin wanted to rest in Champions League and he had requested Ms.Ambani,I don't think she would have the guts to say no to Sachin.But,he rested both Asia Cup and tri-series to play for Mumbai.
    Now,Cheeka has decided to rest him.I can't predict what is next.Maybe resting MSD ot pick Dinesh Karthik again.

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  3. I really didn't mind that Sachin played for Mumbai Indians in the Champions League. Whether we like it or not, club cricket is here to stay and I guess, Sachin has acknowledged that fact.

    But the tri-series was meaningless. He could have rested there. And then rested during the Kiwi tour. My logic behind this is that he should have started the season early and taken a few rests in between to recuperate from the niggles and slight wear-and-tear that is bound to occur on a 37-year old body.

    But like you, even I am disappointed to see Sachin rested for the upcoming 3 ODIs. Its weird that we have gone with our No. 4 and No.6 choice openers (Vijay and Dhawan, I am assuming that Cheeka's committee still consider Karthik as the No. 5 choice opener) for a series against the World No. 1 ODI side.

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