by Shreyas S. Bhide
Here’s a low down of the speculation over which players were supposed to make the tour and who could not have had they not performed in Sri Lanka. Before the one day series against Sri Lanka:
New Zealand Cricket has agreed to accommodate more playing days in India’s tour itinerary of New Zealand. The Indian team will now play three test matches, five ODI’s and two Twenty20 games in New Zealand. The T20 matches will take place on 25th and 27th February at ChristChurch and Wellington respectively, while the five ODI’s will be played on 3rd ,6th ,8th ,11th and 14th March. The first test match will be played at Hamilton(March 18 - March 22), the second at Napier(March26 - March 30), and the third at Wellington(April 3 - April 7). Here’s a lowdown on the possible list of players who will don the whites and the blues for Team India.
For the test matches two important spots will be up for grabs, that of veteran spinner Anil Kumble and former India captain Sourav Ganguly. The two veterans retired after the home test series against Australia and though India won the test series against England without them, the two spots still remain vacant and unclaimed as their occupants in the England test series (except Yuvraj Singh) were non-impressive to say the least. Yuvraj has to work hard and be more consistent as he likes of Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma are already napping at his heels to grab the seat left vacant by Sourav Ganguly. In the batting department,Gambhir, Sehwag, Laxman and Tendulkar automatically select themselves, while Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma are sureshot selections as the front line bowlers. Irfan Pathan has got another chance to perform in the Sri Lanka series and he has to perform and show results to make it to New Zealand. Sreesanth has already declared himself fit for the tour to the Kiwi land and except him and Munaf Patel to slog it out for the third seamer’s spot, if Pathan fails in the Emerald Island. Though RP Singh looks a distant possibility, no one should rule him out given his proximity to skipper Dhoni, if Sreesanth, Munaf Patel or Pathan fail to make it. Rahul Dravid may just get another chance but time is fast running out for the ‘former’ Mr. Dependable who has to perform or perish. A single worthy performance (that too when the axe is just about to fall on him) doesn’t bring him back as a permanent member of the test squad.
Amongst the spinners, Harbhajan Singh should be a part of the squad given he is fit, but the second spot will be a tough fight amongst
Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra. Mishra played against the English team at Chennai and Mohali, but he was ordinary with his performance and figures.
For the ODI’s and T20’s, count out Laxman and Dravid as they seem to have unofficially retired from shorter versions of the game. The list may comprise of the regulars - Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh. The other places up for grabs will be the second spinner, middle order and one or two extra seamers. The fight for seamers again is a tussle between Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, RP Singh and Munaf Patel. Ideally, only three seamers (including Zaheer and Ishant) should make it, but the selectors may just give a fourth option a look-in. The frontline spinner continues to be Harbhajan Singh, but he needs more strong performances with a steady head to occupy the vaccum left empty by Anil Kumble. For the places in the middle order the race will be amongst Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma. Not much should be read into the selection of Ravindra Jadeja and Praveen Kumar as both of them look more like selection experiments rather than serious thought overs. Questions may also be raised over the (non)selection of Badrinath and P.Ojha who have been warming the benches for a long time despite immense talent strong performances on the domestic scene. These names may be counted out even before they can be thought of making it.
The veterans have had proved themselves time and again, but the spotlight will be mainly on the young guns, as its their responsibility to take Indian cricket forward after the fab five have walked away gracefully into sunset(two of them already have). The (now corporate) selectors will also play an important role in this process.
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