The 30-15 Principle
Whenever a Cricket Board, in this case, BCCI, picks up 30 probable members for the World Cup, the excitement gets double as to who will make it to the top 15 member squad to actually face the music on the pitch. The guesses keep on coming from all corners which makes the selection process even more nerve racking.
But, ironically, the present Indian Team did not put too much pressure on the former Indian Captain and Chief Selector of Indian Cricket Team Krishnamachari Srikkanth and his Selection Committee, which also consists of former Indian players Yashpal Sharma, Narendra Hirwani and Surendra Bhave. The fact is 12 out of 15 players had since long enough picked themselves up for the important line-up of matches and had left just a couple of spaces vacant to be filled in. Indian Cricket team coach Gary Kirsten and captain MS Dhoni joined the board of selectors on a phone conference from South Africa. Though, there were only 2 seats, the contenders for the same were huge. Such fierce is the competition today to be a part of Team India.
With competition becoming an integral part of the society in today's era, even the media world has become fierce and pumped up to prove themselves as number one the block. Never was an Indian Team selection broadcast live on television. But this, now, is the need of the hour. One should have noticed the way IPL Auctions were shown on air Live. Leading News Channels NDTV, TIMES NOW and CNN IBN went out of their ways to give it as one would say the unwanted mileage it deserved. But for a cricket fanatic like me, who had 2 consecutive sleepless nights, it was more than a competition. It was a visual delight.
The 12 who selected themselves
Getting back to the final 15 who did make it to the squad, let us look at the various possibilities that could have gone through in the minds of the selectors while picking up the team. As mentioned earlier. As mentioned earlier, barring a few players, the team looked filled up with the following names cushion-padding themselves to the team line-up. These included :
The only players who were playing a lottery amongst themselves were middle order batsmen Rohit Sharma, left arm-spinner Pragyan Ojha , present day's most fierce hitter of the cricket ball Yusuf Pathan and pacer S Sreesanth.
Selection Surprises
Discussions were on every moment about makes the cut and who is shown the boots. Surprises were in store for all of us and it started with the omission of Rohit Sharma. It was Yusuf Pathan who was picked ahead of him, although both are considered to be middle-order batsmen with an ability to chip in with some quick overs as part-time bowlers. Only difference being, Pathan is more of a regular bowler than Sharma. But I suppose the home conditions was a major factor that favoured Pathan. It was from this soil that this lad from Vadodara had made a name for himself in World Cricket. Nehra's fitness has always been a major concern but the selectors seemed disinterested in even considering Sreesanth instead of Nehra. Other pacers who were also overlooked include Vinay kumar and Abhimanya Mithun.
A bigger surprise in store
If we thought, omission of Rohit Sharma was the only big surprise the Indian Selectors had planned for us, we were absolutely wrong. We were in for a much bigger one, only that we had not anticipated it. The inclusion of leggie Piyush Chawla was something that none of us had in our wildest dreams expected. The player who has not played since July 2008 and whatever cricket he has played for the national team has been overseas, his inclusion in the final 15-member squad took everyone by storm. People could not understand the main philosophy of the selectors to pick Chawla ahead of players like Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha or for that matter a reserve wicket-keeper. According to me, Ojha deserved a far better place than Chawla in the team. Firstly because, being a left-arm spinner he brings that extra variety to the spin attack and secondly he has done consistently well whenever he has been given a chance. Sad luck that he did not get his due credit. The fact that the selectors termed Piyush Chawla as an all-rounder ade me jump off my seat and take note of his batting records. Not that I have anything personal against him but only because I thought there were far better options available to the selectors, coach and captain to form the final squad. But alas, what I think Dhoni does not and what Dhoni does, I do not. So I had to agree that he was let into the side in order to exploit his wrist spin on the turning tracks of the sub-continent.
No Spare WK
Hardly does a World Cup team goes without a reserve wicket-keeper. And this was to come true when the selectors decided against having any back-up for the Indian Team Captain / Wicket-Keeper MS Dhoni. It is a very risky business to have only one wicket-keeper in your side for the entire schedule of the World Cup. Whether it has been a courageous step from the skipper and the selectors or not, only time will say. The only advantage we enjoy in this World Cup is that since it is being played in the sub-continent, flying a spare wicket-keeper at a very last moment will not be a tough ask. Options include Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik and Bengal wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha. The fact that Patel has been considered in a couple of recent tournaments might give him an edge over the other two players in case someone has to be flown in to replace Dhoni, should the need arise.
Golden Chance for Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin journey to the final 15 of the team did take some people by surprise, but the general verdict he enjoyed from the crowd was quite positive. He made a place for himself in the national side after a series of fantastic performances in the 3rd edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) followed by an equally good performance in the Airtel Champions League 2010 in South Africa, where he played for his franchisee Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Both T20 tournaments were won by CSK and Ashwin had a major role to play. He considers Dhoni to be his guiding force. Dhoni has been quite courageous to use him first up in the shortest versions of the game. But it would be interesting to see how MS exploits his Chennai team-mate at a more international level.
Here's a look at the final 15 member Indian Cricket Team for ICC World Cup 2011.
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