Selectors have done fair job, squad must do its
The National selectors have done well to resist the temptation of roping all youngsters who have had an outstanding time in the Ranji Trophy competition. The most consistent of the lot, left-handed allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, has been picked for the five-match ODI series in Sri Lanka while swing bowler Dhaval Kulkarni has been sensibly made to wait.
After a wonderful Ranji Trophy season, Jadeja’s inclusion in the touring party was a foregone conclusion. How well he copes with the emotions of his maiden trip with Team India will determine whether he gets to play any of the games in the island. Of course, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is not the sort who will keep the youngster waiting for long.
Praveen Kumar's return can be termed unexpected - and curious. Perhaps he is back because Uttar Pradesh made it to the final of the Ranji Trophy but if you will realise that the selectors consigned him to the wilderness after India’s last tour of Sri Lanka in August 2008 when he struggled a bit to bowl under the lights at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Of course, Praveen had a memorable time in the second game where India launched its comeback in the second game in Dambulla but, in two subsequent matches, he was so expensive that he was dropped from the XI in the final game when India fielded four faster bowlers and lost the game that was of little consequence as India had already won the six-match series.
Sri Lanka's tracks are not known to assist the faster bowlers and it is hard to see India going in to a game with more than three quicker bowlers at a time. That can see Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel team up as the top trio, leaving Irfan Pathan and Kumar to wait in the wings for an opportunity.
There have been some suggestions that Yusuf Pathan could stand in for the injured Harbhajan Singh and bowl 10 overs. But he is some way from being an off-spinner who can bowl 10 overs. In fact, in the 12 ODIs that he has played so far, he has sent down a full quota of overs only in two games - against Hong Kong and Bangladesh.
In such circumstances, it would make sense for the team to play one of the two left-arm spinners - Pragyan Ojha or Ravindra Jadeja - and expect him to deliver a full quota of 10 overs, leaving Yusuf Pathan, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh to chip with the fifth bowler’s 10 overs. In fact, the slow bowlers must deliver around 25 overs in each game.
It will be interesting to see how the tour selectors address the critical task of picking the men to bowl the 50 overs in the five games. And it will be just as interesting to see how the thinktank copes with the challenge of having to leave out of couple of talented batsmen
India will open with the hit pairing of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, making the left-handed Gautam Gambhir pad up to bat at the fall of the first wicket. Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni will take up two of the next three batting slots. That will mean Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan will battle it out for the two berths.
It is a good possibility that India will field the full complement of seven batsmen, three quick bowlers and choose one from either Yusuf Pathan or Ojha or Jadeja to complete the XI. Happily, a team that gives the tour selectors the option of benching cricketers like Raina or Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Praveen and a young left-arm spinner can be very competitive.
With a good bench backing up such a fighting combination, India should be able to beat Sri Lanka on home turf again. Of course, it must never be forgotten that India has always found Sri Lanka a tough opposition and will have to ensure that its own intensity is at a high. The selectors have done a good job and it’s now up to the squad to go out there and deliver.