After the disaster in South Africa, India get the chance to restart its stalled cricketing engine with two limited overs series. These matches provide the perfect opportunity for the team’s think tank to find out what is the best combination for the World Cup. Having said that, the noises emanating from the Indian camp are not encouraging to those aspiring to be in the squad for the World Cup. Sure these matches have to be won but the bigger picture should always be the World Cup and unless these games are used to give the men in form the chance to show their skills and temperament, how is one to know how good they are. Even as Sehwag and Pathan have been dropped they are being told that they will be in the squad for the World Cup. So what good is served by dropping them excepting for loss of match fees? What it says is that even if the others who are the replacements do well they will not be selected. That is the wrong message. There’s also talk that none of the probables will be given a go as the purpose is to win the series. What all this smacks of is a club mentality where admission to new members is restricted. Yes, proven performances can go through lean periods too and when that happens, the best option is to give them a break but that does not mean that they have an automatic re-entry especially when their replacements have come good. They too will have to fight to reclaim their places in the side. Look at what Ganguly has done. He has fought back and that is the only way to get another India cap.
The form displayed by Robin Uthappa in domestic cricket has been outstanding and hopefully he will repeat it in the One Dayers. His confidence was not helped by his omission from the team in spite of beginning so well, and while other team favorites retained their places, Uthappa sweated it out in domestic cricket and has won his place back with a bagful of runs.
So also Joginder Sharma who was last picked after hardly a season in domestic cricket and so was not ready for international cricket. Now with a couple more years experience in domestic tournaments, he may well be the finisher that the team is looking for in the final overs of its batting. His medium paces may not find much help in Indian pitches but if he can vary his pace and restrict the economy rate to about 5 runs an over, he would be a useful player for India.
The question in Sehwag’s absence is who will open the batting? With Yuvraj not quite ready to resume his career yet, the middle order needs bolstering too and Ganguly, another left hander, could fill in that slot thus retaining Tendulkar at the top of the order.
The West Indies may not be the force they were a decade ago or so back, but under Lara they have started to show glimpses of the potential they have. The batting is well looked after with Gayle, Samuels, Chanderpaul and the Prince of Trinidad and Tokyo but it is the bowling that has been a let down for the West Indies and the main reason for their slide from the top of the cricketing table.
It’s a wonderful opportunity for both teams to show some early form and get the confidence high before the World cup. India will start as favorites because of the home advantage and will be looking to avenge their 4-1 loss in the West Indies last year.
