A perfect selection storm

[Sachinism]

Imagine Graeme Smith's reaction when he saw the team-sheet before the toss.. 'Sehwag' date=' Gambhir, Sachin, Dhoni, Vijay..yea, isnt he the newcomer? k... Badrinath..hmmm, the debutant, we can target him... Sah..err..Saha, who's this dude... ? Hey Dale, Morkel and Paul, you guys are not gonna believe this...'[/quote'] :haha::haha::haha::haha:

[Karan114]

Exactly. Nothing against the guy. I don't think even he would've woken up thinking this morning that would make his debut today. Let's just hope and he can muster a few runs more than what he did in his last FC outing.

Agreed completely...whatever the reasons, he is in the XI now and so has our full support

[yoda]

man what a mess. ****** rohit. :((

[zen]

The selectors acted like a bunch of housewives when selecting a squad. There was no clear thinking from what I see. Why have someone like Laxman in the squad as one of the specialist bat when he is a doubtful starter. Either you are fit to play or not. You don't include doubtful starters in the squad and if you do, you select him as if he could miss out with sufficient cover and not as if he would play and if he doesn't then. This hindered our selection process Then having Saha in stead of Karthik now looks like a blunder esp when Karthik could have been a better choice as a specialist bat. Though nothing against Saha, he may still hit a ton on debut Another option was to consider 5 bowlers, looking at how things have gone may be that could have helped

[flamy]

Why is KKD not there?

[Sooda]

Because theyre mutts the selectors. From what I read/hear he hasnt developed much as a keeper, so it may be the time to look elsewhere. Dont know how Saha compares on that. He's a good bat though which would have been handy

[Aadhavzone]

Ya but i think little tricky selection this time :)

[vvvslaxman]

Yes poor selection. They shouldn't have selected Kallis and Amla :winky:

[Gunner_Mania]

A perfect selection storm

t was a day of two contrasting debuts. For the last five years S Badrinath has been shouting himself hoarse trying to attract the attention of the selectors with a truckload of runs. Finally his call was answered - he got his debut in place of the injured Yuvraj Singh. What raised eyebrows, though, was the inclusion of the second debutant, Wriddhiman Saha, a last-minute decision that put the player and his team under considerable, perhaps unfair, pressure. It forced the question: Why was the Bengal wicketkeeper, just 24 first-class matches old, out on the field when he really should have been carrying the drinks? The simple answer: he was here in Nagpur and the team management were put in a spot once Rohit Sharma, himself a last-minute inclusion to cover for the injured VVS Laxman, twisted his ankle during the morning warm-ups. Behind that simple answer lies a questionable selection decision, a gamble that could yet backfire on the selectors should events in this game go against India. The squad for this Test had six batsmen - there no wriggle room in the event of injuries, nor even the more established batting wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik to fall back on. Instead, the selectors picked four seam bowlers, seemingly one too many given that India have rarely played three quick bowlers in a home Test. One spot could have been freed up for a batting back-up, and the need to include Saha as a specialist batsman would have also been avoided. Asked after the day's play if he felt the squad lacked an extra batsman, Dhoni gave a mixed response: "This question should have been asked when the squad was announced. No one expected the injury [Rohit] to happen 15 minutes before the start." Rohit's was a case of being in the right place at the right time. He was leading the Board President's XI in the warm-up game against the South Africans and was asked to stay back at the team hotel as the cloud over Laxman's wrist injury had not yet cleared. Barring a triple-century against a below-par Gujarat attack at home, Rohit had little to show this domestic season. Even in the ODIs his spot has now been grabbed by Virat Kohli, who has been earning plaudits with his performances with the national team. More

That is a dumb reason to pick some one. Just because he hapened to be in the same city where the team is playing. How long would it have taken Virat or any of the others to join the team. Its not like they were playing in some God foresaken place with no flights.

[Sachinism]

:headshake: What a piss take

[Ram]

This has to be the most bizzare selectorial goof-up in recent times. To begin with, going with just 6 specialist batsmen in a squad of 15 itself was a big mistake, that too when one of the batsmen (VVS) had an injury cloud hanging over him. Secondly, how can you possibly select someone just because 'he was in the same city at that time?' Part of the problem could be that the selection committee was either given inaccurate/inadequate information on VVS' fitness or, they simply didnt pay heed to it. They should have picked 7 specialist in the squad to begin with and Dinesh Karthik should have been the back-up wicket-keeper. Sure, he failed in the first innings of the first test at B'desh, but surely you couldnt have possibly dropped someone for ONE injudicious shot. The guy duly went back and smashed 2 100s in the Duleep trophy final. This is quite possibly, the first big blunder the current selection committee under Srrikkanth, though there's a good chance that there wasnt proper communication b/w the team mgmt. and the selectors and that could have complicated matters.

[Shane]

I like the Title, hope it doesnt end like the movie though! :((

[vvvslaxman]

It is epic fail. DK averages 50 against South Africa in Tests.

[Karan114]

It is epic fail. DK averages 50 against South Africa in Tests.

Yep, and also he averages 39 as batsman only (as compared to 21 when he is the keeper).

[Ram]

Because of this goof-up, we're now staring down the barrel of a 500+ South African score, with a rookie no.3 playing his 4th test, a debutant no.5 and no.7 batsmen who isnt really a batsmen. Very comforting prospects! :nervous:

[Karan114]

^^ And all this again some pretty damn quick bowlers, the sort of which are nonexistent on the domestic scene that these guys play in day in day out (granted at least Murali did play against the Aussies with Lee/MJ in 2008 and Badri played in a tour game in that same series, not that Badri looked comfortable against that pace)...:((

[Gunner_Mania]

This has to be the most bizzare selectorial goof-up in recent times. To begin with, going with just 6 specialist batsmen in a squad of 15 itself was a big mistake, that too when one of the batsmen (VVS) had an injury cloud hanging over him. Secondly, how can you possibly select someone just because 'he was in the same city at that time?' Part of the problem could be that the selection committee was either given inaccurate/inadequate information on VVS' fitness or, they simply didnt pay heed to it. They should have picked 7 specialist in the squad to begin with and Dinesh Karthik should have been the back-up wicket-keeper. Sure, he failed in the first innings of the first test at B'desh, but surely you couldnt have possibly dropped someone for ONE injudicious shot. The guy duly went back and smashed 2 100s in the Duleep trophy final. This is quite possibly, the first big blunder the current selection committee under Srrikkanth, though there's a good chance that there wasnt proper communication b/w the team mgmt. and the selectors and that could have complicated matters.

The selectors cannot hide behind the lack of communication from team management as reason why this kind of selection goof up happened. I think irrespective of VVS Laxman's fitness or lack of it Karthik should have been in the squad and not Saha.

[Ram]

The selectors cannot hide behind the lack of communication from team management as reason why this kind of selection goof up happened. I think irrespective of VVS Laxman's fitness or lack of it Karthik should have been in the squad and not Saha.

Hmm, I dont think any of us could pinpoint blame at certain people without knowing what exactly happened. Of course, we can speculate and my guess is that all concerned (team mgmt, fitness trainer, selectors) misjudged VVS's fitness badly. About 3,4 days ago, when it became apparent that he wasnt fit enough to be in the eleven, the team mgmt must have sent out an SOS to the selectors, which left them grappling to find a replacement and send him to Nagpur at such a short notice.They thought they got a lucky break when they were able to send Rohit after his BP XI match.... But yes, Saha's selection is baffling. Currently, there are two reserve keepers who are better batsmen than him (Karthik and Parthiv) and both of them just got off international/domestic assignments. What is more perplexing is given that Saha is now in the eleven, why isnt he keeping? If your reason to pick reserve keeper for a home series (which isnt the norm) is that you are not sure about the fitness of your front-line keeper, why is Dhoni is still keeping and putting more stress on his body, even when there's another specialist keeper in the eleven?

[vvvslaxman]

Because of this goof-up, we're now staring down the barrel of a 500+ South African score, with a rookie no.3 playing his 4th test, a debutant no.5 and no.7 batsmen who isnt really a batsmen. Very comforting prospects! :nervous:

no.5 is a nervous wreck :hysterical: It is definitely a perfect storm.

[Gunner_Mania]

On the brighter side, the last time we had two middle order debutants in a test match, one went on to score a 100 and the other missed a century by 5 runs. Both of them went on to be come legends of Indian cricket in their own rights.