With the Indian team getting a break of three months and the Indian domestic season now over, the selectors will have to look into the performances of different players from all angles, when they pick the A-team that will go on tour shortly. When they pick the team, they have to think about the weaknesses of the senior team (especially in ODI's) and use the forthcoming tour as a way to provide a few solutions, which are needed. For a start, every player in the side has to be effective on the field.
There may not be any problem with opening the innings, as Sehwag and Gambhir are good enough at this stage, but having a few reserves will definitely help, and keep the frontliners on their toes. They can choose the consistent Dheeraj Jadhav and Wasim Jaffer, by far the most reliable options at hand. Jadhav may have only got runs against weak Zimbabwean/Kenyan opposition, but he's got them in bulk. Jaffer has had some experience in England, with a double century in that tour. Among the youngsters, Robin Uthappa of Karnataka an Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi may be the first choices, but an experienced player as a reserve would be preferred.
The middle order will have a few automatic selections, such as Suresh Raina and Venugopal Rao, two promising youngsters who have been in good form. They can opt for the experience of Amol Mazumdar and Mithun Manhas, to steady the innings and play the anchor role. A few may suggest the inclusion of Mongia, Badani and Sriram, but both have been given quite a few chances and they're not needed at this stage. All the middle-order batsmen have to run lots of singles.
The biggest weakness in the national side is the lack of a genuine all-rounder. The selectors have to identify prospects for that position and pick as many as three of them. However, it does not stop there- the team management must make sure these all-rounders are utilised fully in every match- bat within the top seven positions and bowl as many overs as the strike bowlers- some of them are.
The ideal choices would be Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan (his brother) and Joginder Sharma of Haryana. Irfan may have been the strike bowler for the national team, but he is not seasoned as a strike bowler, nor has he done enough as a batsman, so a full tour as a practising all-rounder will help him. His brother, Yusuf, has taken his batting more seriously and is also a hard hitter of the ball, though he relies on hand-eye co-ordination rather than technique, while his leg-spin bowling has not suffered- his all-round efforts made Baroda a surprise package this season. Joginder Sharma is an outswing bowler like Balaji, but he must cut out the short stuff and add more variations in his bowling.
The last thing the Indian senior team or A-team needs now is another bits-and-pieces wicketkeeper. They have to pick a wicketkeeper exclusively for his wicketkeeping, so that the bowlers can get enough opportunities to score runs. Moreover, having a top keeper behind the stumps (as also nne top fielders) helps the bowlers, as he can take all those extra catches, stumpings and runouts that a batsman with the gloves can't take. The contender shuld be Ajay Ratra, a very fast wicketkeeper, with the best reflexes among all wicketkeepers in India.
Another vacancy in the national side, fast turning into a weakness, is that of a tearaway pace bowler. All world class attacks have at least one tearaway pacer. That can be seen in the bowling attacks of England (Harmison and Jones), Pakistan (Akhtar and Sami), New Zealand (Bond and Butler), Sri Lanka (Dilhara and Malinga), West Indies (Lawson and a few more), South Africa (Nel, Ntini) and even Zimbabwe. Why not India? That's a question echoed by J&K's Abid Nabi and Punjab's Vikram Singh. Both try to bowl as fast as they can and have been taking wickets at a good strike rate and average in FC matches. Neither have made the starting lineups for Duleep matches due to the congested pace scene there in the north. A few mention Munaf Patel, but his fielding and fitness has not been up to the mark- he needs to save more runs on the field and last a full season without getting injured. Moreover, he should stop doing the Shoaib Act of going off the field for minor niggles.
At the same time, the other option should be a swing/seam bowler, to utilise the conditions. Punjab's Gagandeep Singh has been running riot in the recent domestic season, whil Uttar Pradesh's RP Singh as been impressive too. Irfan Pathan's return as lead bowler can only help matters. The experienced Amit Bhandari may also be tried, but his experience is more vital in the senior side at present.
The selectors cannot forget the national team's main strength- spin bowling. However, they must support attacking bowling by the spinners, which has been missing in the recent India/Pakistan series. The frontliners have been bowling far too wide outside leg and have not made the batsmen play enough deliveries, thus allowing them to get set without being under any pressure. The best choices at this stage are Tamil Nadu's Ramkumar, Haryana's Amit Mishra and Baroda's Rajesh Pawar and Yusuf Pathan.
This should be the final squad for the forthcoming tour-
- AR Uthappa
- S Dhawan
- Dheeraj Jadhav
- Mithun Manhas
- Suresh Raina
- Venugopal Rao
- Amol Mazumdar
- Ratra
- Irfan Pathan
- Yusuf Pathan
- Joginder Sharma
- Abid Nabi/VR Singh
- R Ramkumar
- Amit Mishra
- RP Singh
