It's a decent question - would Mark have been picked ahead of Todd. Really not sure, I bloody hope so. Todd might be the better performing FC spinner and also batsman, but Pidg has shown himself very capable with the bat at Test level, more than I'd expect from Todd (I know that's not fair given he made a decent score on debut and has no other chances, but it's a hunch) and furthermore he's infinitely more likely to win a Test match in the 4th innings. Todd only passes muster as a holding bowler, which given our **** Test record this year I'd rather someone who might get pinged for a couple but can take a big bag.
The Jeet thing is ridiculous. It's this 21st century mentality where selectors and management justify their existence by 'thinking outside the box'. They took Jeet to SA but kept backing the existing limping horse, said India wasn't necessarily a place for traditional openers - yet continued to open with two Test specialised openers whilst one was in all sorts of bad form and continued to exhibit it. Jeet comes back, doesn't turn any of his 6 starts into a ton, and some of the shots he got out to were absolutely awful (read the mow to be bowled off Jeet, steering Viljoen straight to gully and poking to Bennett outside off stump which honestly could've been a dead ball if he'd got runs, it was that far away from being classified as a shot) but yet in he goes for a guy who outscored him in the last game. It's okay to replace people and I advocated Jeet in SA and India, but not when he's had chances to justify it since and hasn't taken it. Of course, I'm sure he learnt lots from 'being in the environment' in Africa and making 30 in a tour match v Zimbabwe A.
