Squad for 2nd test vs SA : Suresh Raina gets maiden Test call-up

[youngindia]

1. Kohli - He will be a finished and complete product within a year and has all it takes to be a long term batsman at the number 4 slot. Should have been in the test team ahead of Badrinath..

The conventional wisdom is it takes on average 10 years of sustained dedicated + quality work at a high level to master a field. and kohli will be a finished product in one year? works in lala land.

[youngindia]

What has Raina done to warrant him this Test cap? He was not even there in the Board President's XI team. It was Nayar and Pujara who did well in that game against the Proteas.

its about confidence in your abilities to succeed as an international player. the people who matter in indian cricket have picked yuvraj,raina,rohit,kohli etc because they were perceived a better talents than the rest. raina was picked way back in 2005 so that he has a taste of international level cricket and matures enough by the time he plays tests. as is the casee with all the players. some people like kaif,dinesh,badani ,rao have been discarded becuae they didnt't meet expectations. now is not the ideal time. but injuires have played a part in giving him a premature taste of test cricket. if its premature to give raina some tests, its far more premature to give chances to the likes of kohli who haven't clocked enough hours on the field. so for the moment, raina was the best pick. as he is the youngster wioth moste xperience at international level and has fifties vs autsralia to fall back on.

[Gunner_Mania]

Lesson learnt: Srikkanth owns up to selection fault http://cricketnext.in.com/news/lesson-learnt-srikkanth-owns-up-to-selection-fault/46858-38.html

Krishnamachari Srikkanth: I don't think the selection matter was a particular issue, but unfortunately that is the problem. When the team wins it's fine but when the team loses, generally the selectors get bashed. So I'm willing to take the blame and own up the responsibility and I am not shying away from it. But the point is, unfortunately, whatever happened on the morning of the Test match was absolutely unfortunate and freakish. That's what they have in this contract called 'Forced Majeure Situations'. Imagine if a player is unfit just 15 minutes and that too a standby player - Rohit Sharma wasn't even in the original 15 - just before the toss, I don't think anybody can be blamed for it. We have also learnt a lesson. Firstly, I own up to the responsibility as chairman of the selection committee and say we should not select any player who is not 100 per cent fit. But you have to understand why it all happened. It's easy to say in hindsight that you should have done this or that. Just imagine a situation where you don't have Rahul Dravid for the Test match. Everybody knew Laxman was not fully fit but we were all hoping that at some point he might become fit just before the game, so that in the absence of Dravid, Laxman is an equally good player of fast bowling.

That is refreshing from an Indian selector. Can't remember the last time when an Indian selector put up his hand and said yes we goofed up.

[Sachinism]

Not just a selector, anyone in India with some responsibility

[thevortex]

Shining example of unity within the team management. This is what we need.

[gult]

Great that srikkanth is valuing his role as a selector.

[yoda]

And let's not forget that we did not lose that test because of the 7th batsman screw up, as bad as that sounds.

[vvvslaxman]

I feel for Saha. I mean he is a limited batsman. But the spirit, committment he showed is something to be appreciated. Hope others draw inspiration his little innings. He may never play for India again. But he did the very best he could do with lot of application.

[King]

Whatever the story the selection was to put it mildly been strange in the last couple of test matches either it is the team management's or the selection committe.

[coffee_rules]

I think in all home matches, it is the selectors that decide the playing 11. In away matches, it is the team mgmt. Remember the Ganguly toss incident. When Waugh was waiting for the toss, Ganguly was being coerced by some selector push some player into the final 11.

[achilles]

Srikkanth has done a great thing here. I hope the players he's picked for the 2nd Test deliver the goods :isalute: