MUMBAI, 28 September 2007 — Team India’s stupendous triumph in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup has brought in its wake an unprecedented euphoria that bordered on the frenzied. The dimension and quality of the success during its short shrift in South Africa has also drawn upon itself a huge problem that will take some solving.

The “Bravehearts,” as the Dhoni-led non-star cast of young players has been dubbed, will be in for a form of disintegration that looks inevitable. Come the ODI home series against Australia, almost half the team will be sidelined in order to accommodate stalwarts like Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Zaheer Khan. Going out will be Joginder Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa. When it comes to the final eleven, more will lose their places.

One can say that Joginder Sharma and Yusuf Pathan were selected as specialists for shortest version of the game, but there is no denying the fact that the omission of Rohit Sharma and Uthappa will not only be a great disappointment for the youngsters, who have played as important a part in India’s success as anyone else, it will also be a setback for a new, emerging force that is Team India today.

One ought to remember that most of the members of the Twenty20 World Cup team are also adept at playing the 50-overs version of the game. Some of them will be out to accommodate the heavyweights of Indian cricket.

This move to revert to the old system of selection, based on past record rather than present form, is bound to once again raise the question over the continuance of the senior players to indulge in the shorter version of the game.

While Dravid is as fit as any young player, Tendulkar and Ganguly have been seen laboring to cope with the rigors and fitness required for one-day cricket these days.

The two together may hang on at the crease, but their mobility between the wickets, as well as on the field, leaves a lot to be desired. Tendulkar has gone on record admitting that he takes time to recover from one match to be able to play in the next.

There have been at least two occasions on the recent tour of England, when Tendulkar has suffered severe cramps. Ganguly’s fitness also is under a cloud as, it was learned, that he ducks exercise and warm-up sessions during practice.

It ought not to be too long before the selectors get down to defining the priorities and criteria of selection of the teams for different versions of the game.

It is being emphasized more than ever before that one-day cricket is a young man’s game, in which fielding and running between the wickets are as important as bowling and batting. No team defines this better than India’s triumphant Twenty20 squad.

In this context, it will be sad if some promising young players are left rotting on the sidelines, after proving themselves, for want of opportunities.