Indian Team Selection

India in SL, 2010

Test Series

India and SL will be back for yet another series. Even ardent fans of SL and India will be bored by now. Have some heart, this time it is different. It is a test series and not any hastily organized one day tournament.

BCCI selection committee has declared the final 16 who will be playing for the country. Overall, I believe, it is a good selection except for two selections:

• Wriddhiman Saha as a reserve wicket keeper - What does BCCI want to achieve. Is he in fray for any future tournament? Did they forget Dinesh Karthik, the perennial prover. He is a decent wicketkeeper and much better batsman than Saha. Moreover, he has immense international experience; whenever a batsman  is injured, he is the first one to be called.
• Recall of Yuvraj Singh - Yuvraj has the talent to become one of the best batsman in the world. He is as talented as KP or even SRT. But his performance proves otherwise. Today he is not even as good as  Dada, whom he replaced. He has to value and respect his place in test side.

I think selection on Suresh Raina and Vijay was spot on. There are skeptics who believe Raina does not have the required skills to survive a test match; especially his weakness against the short ball. He has proven, time and again, in both one day and T20 cricket that he can survive short deliveries. His one day record, especially over last 2 years, is a case to the point. Raina should be give a chance to fail.

Vijay is another talented youngster who has not done too badly in test cricket. His Ranji Trophy record is excellent and is one of the better batsman in Indian cricket today. His T20 performances should not be used as a benchmark for test selection.

Talking about youngsters, the selection committee should start blooding some of the others as well. Selectors have to start thinking about the future. Big 3 may not be there after 2-3 years. They have taken us to the top of ICC ranking but new talent has to retain that top ranking. Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Pujara, Kohli and Badrinath could be future of Indian test scene. Especially Badri and Pujara. Badri may not be a youngster but he has few years of cricket left in him.

All these players have been knocking on selection committee doors for many years. Of course selectors can't (and shouldn't) accommodate all but they should devise a strategy so that these youngsters can play with big 3 when there is still some time. The selectors can take following approach:

• Have a rotation policy in place.
• Always choose 16 players (even when the matches are being held in India) in the squad
• Drop Yuvraj - I would love to see him the team but not an usual irresponsible Yuvraj.