Indian Selectors In A Bind Ahead of Test Series : thoughts on Indian squad selected vs SA[Merged]

[Dhondy]

If you make a living picking stocks, making diagnoses or deciphering code, you wouldn't be blamed for wondering what the fuss is all about when a few selectors meet ahead of a potentially difficult Test series to pick a squad of perhaps 15 out of really what is a group of 20 appointable players. Not until you realise that this is the same motley bunch of folks that postponed a Test selection meeting because they wanted to wait and see the results of an one day tournament. If ever there were any doubts about the mental processes about our "Panch Parmeshwar" (to borrow a term from the wonderfully successful Voice of India), this should have set alarm bells ringing across the length and breadth of a nation of cricket fans still revelling in their side's fiesty performance in Australia. After all, this is the same ill informed rag tag bunch that dropped our best opener since Gavaskar for two crucial Tests down under, before being forced to select him because of the absolute and utter hopelessness of the other incumbents. Not to mention, the folly of forcing an all time great middle order bat to open to accomodate a mercurial under achiever down the order. Or the plumping for an oft tried failure as a spin option for the series opener on a traditionally non-spinning track ahead of a pace sensation that took away the collective breath of the world media when finally given a break, again forced upon powers that be through an injury....the list of wonderful and weird serendipities that our think tank now wear on their lapel as a badge of honour goes on... What will their thought processes be, as they sit over a cup of cafe-noire, gently nibbling samosas steaming in chippendale plates acquired with the ill invested money of Sony-WSG? These so called professional men, whose compensation packages now equal the best in India for a few days of "work", watching free cricket all over the world at the taxpayers' expense, that most of us would give our eye-teeth for? (continued)

[Dhondy]

The opening positions would come up of course. They always do. Sehwag would have bought himself a few Tests of grace, no doubt, but let nobody be in any doubt that his rope doesn't extend any further. This the man, who singlehandedly was the difference between a 2-1 scoreline and a 3-1 one, would be constantly reminded of his failures in ODI cricket, his dry spell against the current opponents in their backyard, and heaven forbid, should he fail in the first Test or two, the excited, adrenaline laden fumes of Test discards like Gambhir on his back would grow into force 10 gales. For now, he is safe though. Gambhir and Jaffer therefore go head to head for the other slot, and given that the series is being played at home, the wise men will select only one. Which one? As if you didn't know! Surely, it has to be the one that has excelled in the ODI and 20-20 forms of the game in recent months? It doesn't matter a whit that he has blown almost every chance given to him at Test level, while his competitor, albeit displaying a deplorable weakness away from home on the lively tracks of Australia and South Africa, has shown himself more than capable of racking up ton after double ton on the somnolent surfaces that pass as cricket pitches in India. Sure as rain follows a drop in the pressure gauge then, that Jaffer will make way for the dimunuitive Gambhir, who matches his other North Zone colleagues in giving intrepid interviews drawing attention to his rather dubious skills. Is that it then? The opening positions done and dusted? You can bet your life it ain't. Indian selectors, being creatures of convoluted frontal lobes, thought processes more scrambled than badly manufactured spaghetti, will think of other options. These will comprise of the patently impossible goal of getting 12 players into the XI, of getting more "value" out of one candidate than is apparent from his Test record alone. Thus, Irfan Pathan will be discussed as a potential opener to partner Sehwag, ignoring his toothlessness as a bowler on these benign tracks, and the utter folly of selecting him ahead of our three frontmen in the pace department. Rahul Dravid's name will again crop up as a potential opening bat, with tantalising memories of Yuvraj's fine 140-odd scored from a position of great distress for his team the last time he turned out in Indian colours on these shores, tormenting the selectors. On the other side of the coin, a thought may or may not be spared for the fact that the first time Dravid was restored to his usual station in Australia, he scored 93 against a superlative pace attack on the fastest track in the world, an innings that proved to be decisive in India's victory, as many of his knocks from that perch just behind the pawns have over the years. Don't rule out therefore, the time honoured "fudge", where either Gambhir or Jaffer is dropped on the day for Pathan or Yuvraj, and once again, a makeshift pair walks out to shoulder the responsibility that has often been beyond the capacity of specialists. (to be continued)

[Kartikey]

Gambhir, Chopra certain to earn Test recall http://www.cricketnext.com/news/gambir-chopra-certain-of-test-selection/30331-13.html Mumbai: With Test opener Wasim Jaffer of Mumbai and Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag struggling for runs during the recent tour of Australia, in-form opening batsmen from Delhi – Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra are almost certain to be picked for the home series against South Africa starting at Chennai on March 26. "Jaffer’s form has been dismal while Sehwag has struggled for runs during the Australian tour and with both Gambhir, who was the highest scorer during the tri-series which India won, and Chopra, who topped the domestic run-getters’ list, it is almost certain they will make it to the Test squad for the three-match Test series against the Proteas," according to a selector here on Sunday. The selectors are scheduled to meet in Bangalore to pick the Test squad to be led by Anil Kumble. Speaking about the injuries to Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, the selector said that none of the three have been ruled out of selection as their injuries were not anything serious. "We are not concerned about the injuries to three main players as they are not very serious. To be on the safer side we have asked them to undergo a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Sunday. Moreover, we have adequate replacements for any injured players," the selector said. "Among the three players, Yuvraj’s injury is a bit of a concern as his knee injury, which he sustained in a freak accident a couple of years ago during a camp, is still troubling him as he struggled to get back to form during the tri-series. However, I don’t like to comment right now as we are expecting a complete report from NCA staffs before the selection committee meeting tomorrow," he added. It is also learnt that Harbhajan, who claims that he is fully fit, has hamstring problem and has been advised 15-day rest after the Australian tour. He has also been asked to avoid running long distance and climbing steep steps consistently so that he does not aggravate the injury which may lead to a major operation. Compared to the two Punjab stars, the injury to Ishant’s left toe seems to be quite minor. Though the Delhi pacer is also being treated for an injury to the forefinger on his right hand (bowling arm). If Ishant is ruled out at the last minute, India’s new bowling find Praveen Kumar might be picked for the first time in the Test squad. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla also may make the cut as the third spinner with the wickets in Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kanpur (the three Test venues) are bound to assist spinners at this time of the year. What, how can they drop Sehwag??? yes, he struggled in the ODI's but not in the tests, what kind of joke is this. If it wasn't for him, we would have lost Adeilade. I think Chopra and Gambhir are very good, but dropping Sehwag, no it doesnt quite work out for me.

[Chandan]

Thus, Irfan Pathan will be discussed as a potential opener to partner Sehwag, ignoring his toothlessness as a bowler on these benign tracks, and the utter folly of selecting him ahead of our three frontmen in the pace department. Rahul Dravid's name will again crop up as a potential opening bat, with tantalising memories of Yuvraj's fine 140-odd scored from a position of great distress for his team the last time he turned out in Indian colours on these shores, tormenting the selectors.

Please noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Don't want the selectors to make this mistake again. I don't mind if either of Gambhir or Jaffer are chosen to partner Sehwag as an opener. But please no Pathan or Dravid in that position!! SA is going to have two express bowlers in Steyn and Morkel and the third os the veteran Ntini. But can they get lateral movement on Indian pitches to trouble batsmen? I suppose Indian openers won't get blown by speed alone. So what is the plan of SA? PS: You can go as long as want, complaining about the the selectors, Dhondy, but what do you make of th Indian media (as in the previous post)which is blinder than a bat and more stupid that anything on this earth?

[Dhondy]

Numbers 3,4, 5,6, and 7 and Kumble at 8 are unimpeachable, and even a decerebrate monkey wouldn't dream of excluding a fully fit Ishant Sharma and RP Singh on current form, so the rest of our discussions boil down to just one place in the XI. As many have pointed out, Harbhajan Singh, for the services that he has offered in country in riling up opponents in ODI cricket (sadly, in Test cricket such efforts have backfired spectacularly, with the likes of Hayden and Symonds punishing India for Bhajji's ill-conceived "aggression"), for giving one match winning interview after another (winning matrimonial matches from parents of lasses that fancy a Constable in Punjab Police as a groom, that is), and for winning a spectacularly over-remunerated contract in the most useless and purposeless competition ever, surely heads the list of candidates to fill that last bowling spot? Who's to argue with his legendary exploits in 2004 and 2001? This being 2008, it is impossible to ignore the statitistical certitude that he fires every 4 years. He must be in the squad then. Yet, given the recent upswing in India's seam fortunes, an incumbent from among the quicks must be chosen, if only to keep Bhajji on his toes. But who? Ah-ha, you ignoramuses, here comes the Deodhar! With his four-fers in Australia and the three-fer versus West Zone in Deodhar trophy, Praveen Kumar has completely overshadowed Sreesanth. Forgotten are the latter's heroics against this opposition at Jo'burg, the fact that he has the best Test average among all Indian seamers, past or present, and the way he unflinchingly handled enormous workloads in both England and SA. No, all this will be ignored, his "unstable" ankle, as cited by the now fast retreating Gloster will be invoked, and he will be left out of the squad altogether in favour of the resurgent PK, whose gentle in- and out-dippers will be figured out in a matter of 10 overs by Kallis and co. Test cricket is not one day cricket, but you'd be impossibly naive to expect the Indian selectors to figure out the distinction. Finally, as ever, there must be stooge in the squad, on the lines of Pankaj Singh on the trip down under- a completely unselectable commodity that makes the selectors feel good about themselves for "blooding" a "talent". This, their "spot" from their lynx eyed perspective, this, their claim to fame that sets them apart from the rest of us undeserving plebeians, jumping up and down with our own team sheets clutched in uninformed hands. Who's it going to be? It could be anybody, but the odds are on a young spinner- remember, he must be completely redundant to the final XI, or a third opener, a person who wouldn't have a ghost of a chance of ever playing, given that at the first sign of failure at the top, Dravid will be nudged up into his now customary unfamiliar role (oxymoron intended). That's it folks- that's how the cerebral processes of Indian selectors work- don't blame me for their thinking. (Thal, let this one stay on the forums. I am looking forward to reading all the inscrutable one line nuggets of wisdom such as "Bhajji must be selected at any cost because he looooves Madrasi Dossa", or "PK is tonnes better than that monkey Sreesanth", or the numerous cut and pastes from the mysterious "Feed" (did you notice the Einsteinish threads discussing "him") from people who can't be bothered to articulate one coherent thought. Makes it all worthwhile really.) Concluded.

[Chandan]

Sreeshanth HAS to be included in the squad. He is one of our frontline seamers and he must be there in the XII. I'm not at all in favour of giving Praveen Kumar a go in the tests because tests are completely different from ODIs and hopefully even the selectors will understand. And it'd depend completely on Kumble to decide if he'd want a 2 seamer, 2 spinner attack or 3 seamer and lone spinner attack depending upon the pitch. I don't think we are good enough to take pitch out of equation in tests as yet.

[Dhondy]

Chandan, I just read that article from Cricketnext on this thread. Brilliant, innit? Makes you want to weep inconsolably and tear out the hair on your head until nothing's left. Drop Sehwag,who "struggled for runs in Australia", bring in PK ahead of Sreesanth....this from people who pretend to be cricket journalists. See what I mean? This is the sort of thinking that we are up against.

[umpire]

The game is in Chennai, we need two spinners. Perhaps Chawla, perhaps Ojha or perhaps Murli Kartik should get the 2nd spot. For Ahmedabad I will go with 3 seamers.

[umpire]

team for XI Sehwag Jaffer Dravid SRT Laxman Ganguly Dhoni Kumble RP Ishant Murli Kartik/Ojha/Chawla But Kumble will go with his mate bhajji.

[Mr. Wicket]

(Thal' date= let this one stay on the forums. I am looking forward to reading all the inscrutable one line nuggets of wisdom such as "Bhajji must be selected at any cost because he looooves Madrasi Dossa", or "PK is tonnes better than that monkey Sreesanth", or the numerous cut and pastes from the mysterious "Feed" (did you notice the Einsteinish threads discussing "him") from people who can't be bothered to articulate one coherent thought. Makes it all worthwhile really.)

Yup, will let this rest a while. Besides, I'm on vacation right now in Cali, so can't really be bothered with admin work now. :D Great piece though, shame it's nowhere near as interesting as that poll about the Dastardly Feed. :P

[Dhondy]

Dhondy' date=' not sure how you can blame the selectors for Sehwag's omission from the first two tests. If anything, they made a brave call by including him in the squad. Likewise for Yuvraj and Harbhajan. It was kumble who was responsible for the final eleven and he chose a team (final 11) he was comfortable with. Senseless post.[/quote'] Don't go teaching sense to me, Sonny. Was it Kumble who had dropped Sehwag for the eight Tests prior to the Oz series? Kumble didn't have the courage to try a guy without matchfitness against the best side in the world, and must share the blame with selectors, but the lion's share of the blame lies with the latter for marginalising one of the best openers in our game. And Harbhajan should never have made the Oz trip, so ya, they get to cop that one too.

[amits]

sehwag should not be dropped from the test team at any cost. he scored 151 runs in the last innings he played in test cricket & played an important role in the last 2 tests. sehwag, in 2007 was also dropped from tests for his poor odi form. poor odi form is no reason to drop a player from tests. if poor odi form is everything selectors need to select test teams, then drop dravid, ganguly, laxman, kumble & zaheer also from tests as well. and players like yuvraj get into the test team bcoz they do well in odis. if sehwag is dropped from tests now, i will stop supporting india now

[Dhondy]

And "selectors" means chaps who select the team, not just the squad, so that includes Kumble. Anyway, shouldn't you be starting another angst ridden thread on how to overcome girlfriend worries, instead of commenting on mundane matters such as cricket?

[Dhondy]

I can understand your reaction to being given the ditch. Depression can do terrible things to you. Get into rehab if you can afford it. If you can't, too bad. Just join the chronically ill on skid row, and wait for the blues to lift. Whatever you do, don't take it out on me. I deal with 10, maybe 20 punk "kids" like you a week, middle aged blokes without jobs pretending to be young, and looking for sympathy on internet message boards. Just can't be bothered.

[CricketMeriJaan]

:two_thumbs_up:

[Anakin]

What's with all the personal insults?

[Predator_05]

I wonder what is going on between John Gloster and the rest of the team. His reports have been implicitly rubbished in public by some of the players who have declared themselves fit and available for selection just days after it was rumoured that they would miss the series. Tendulkar, Laxman, Yuvraj have been advised to 'rest' for several weeks but they are all willing to play. How strange ? In the case of someone like Yuvraj, i get the feeling that the report must have been grossly exaggerated as the selectors attempt to drop him without inciting the scrutiny of the gossip-hungry Indian media. What a mistake that would be; Yuvraj can score plenty of runs at home and he would be desperate to prove himself after two poor Tests in Australia.

[Shehezaada]

Don't go teaching sense to me, Sonny. Was it Kumble who had dropped Sehwag for the eight Tests prior to the Oz series? Kumble didn't have the courage to try a guy without matchfitness against the best side in the world, and must share the blame with selectors, but the lion's share of the blame lies with the latter for marginalising one of the best openers in our game. And Harbhajan should never have made the Oz trip, so ya, they get to cop that one too.

Sehwag was dropped after 8 innings when he failed to make a 50. But he didn't deserve to get dropped there..but anyways let's look at India's progress after he got dropped, starting from playing tests against BAN in 2007. Match -> Opening stands 1 -> 0, 0 2-> 175* (openers had to retire hurt) 3-> 18, 38 4-> 147, 47 5-> 62, 10 6-> 15, 2 7-> 2, 75 8-> 8, 17 This is Kartik and Wasim Jaffer. In the first test they opened together, they put together 150+ against SA in SA. They also pretty much shored up our batting in England, the 147 run partnership being a match winning one. So where is Sehwag supposed to come from? He only got a look in because Kartik failed against Pakistan. The selectors made a mistake in dropping Sehwag after 8 test innings in which he failed to reach 50. But you want to discard an opening pair that have 3 100, 2 50 opening partnership in 9 test matches, at an average of 45.89? Two wrong's don't make a right. Of course Sehwag shouldn't have been dropped in the first place, but you also must recognize the double standards that your having with Sehwag. I love Sehwag, I'm a big fan, his inclusion on the AUS tour was amazing for me. But it also shortchanged a pair that had done well for us.

[Cricketics]

^a pair that has helped us draw more games then win???

[Bumper]

http://www.cricketnext.com/news/gambir-chopra-certain-of-test-selection/30331-13.html Mumbai: With Test opener Wasim Jaffer of Mumbai and Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag struggling for runs during the recent tour of Australia, in-form opening batsmen from Delhi – Gautam Gambhir and Aakash Chopra are almost certain to be picked for the home series against South Africa starting at Chennai on March 26. "Jaffer’s form has been dismal while Sehwag has struggled for runs during the Australian tour and with both Gambhir, who was the highest scorer during the tri-series which India won, and Chopra, who topped the domestic run-getters’ list, it is almost certain they will make it to the Test squad for the three-match Test series against the Proteas," according to a selector here on Sunday. The selectors are scheduled to meet in Bangalore to pick the Test squad to be led by Anil Kumble. Speaking about the injuries to Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, the selector said that none of the three have been ruled out of selection as their injuries were not anything serious. "We are not concerned about the injuries to three main players as they are not very serious. To be on the safer side we have asked them to undergo a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Sunday. Moreover, we have adequate replacements for any injured players," the selector said. "Among the three players, Yuvraj’s injury is a bit of a concern as his knee injury, which he sustained in a freak accident a couple of years ago during a camp, is still troubling him as he struggled to get back to form during the tri-series. However, I don’t like to comment right now as we are expecting a complete report from NCA staffs before the selection committee meeting tomorrow," he added. It is also learnt that Harbhajan, who claims that he is fully fit, has hamstring problem and has been advised 15-day rest after the Australian tour. He has also been asked to avoid running long distance and climbing steep steps consistently so that he does not aggravate the injury which may lead to a major operation. Compared to the two Punjab stars, the injury to Ishant’s left toe seems to be quite minor. Though the Delhi pacer is also being treated for an injury to the forefinger on his right hand (bowling arm). If Ishant is ruled out at the last minute, India’s new bowling find Praveen Kumar might be picked for the first time in the Test squad. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla also may make the cut as the third spinner with the wickets in Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kanpur (the three Test venues) are bound to assist spinners at this time of the year. What, how can they drop Sehwag??? yes, he struggled in the ODI's but not in the tests, what kind of joke is this. If it wasn't for him, we would have lost Adeilade. I think Chopra and Gambhir are very good, but dropping Sehwag, no it doesnt quite work out for me.

The selectors are gonna drop Sehwag ? Just a week or two back I was telling Salil how i had reversed my opinion on Vengsarkar & i read this.:cry_smile: Anyone who thinks Chopra (based on his domestic exploits) will make a great opener, is day dreaming. The guy is at best a role player & his success has been highly mythical. (We already saw the effect of two dour openers (Dravid & Jaffer) on the middle order, didnt we ?). Sehwag & Jaffer must open. In subcontinental conditions, Jaffer has the technique & temperament to build tall scores to bat the Saffies out of the game. Gambhir has all the shots, but he's a bit like Yuvraj, does not play percentage cricket in the test variety. He will end up nicking early in the innings more often than not. I was really hoping for another bout of verbal volleys between Hayden & Bhajji. Would love to see both these big mouths banned for a year from Test cricket.