Indian team for Australia ODIs

Being in India at the moment, I’ve had the opportunity to simultaneously watch the two shorter order tournaments that have been on offer this weekend, the Champions League and the Challenger Trophy. The Champions League is a mixed bag; some of the games with “local” teams have inspired passion and excitement, while I haven’t even bothered to follow the results of the others. For me, the highlight of it is definitely watching the old warhorses, Anil Kumble and Glenn McGrath, back in the limelight, bowling with an aggression and with pinpoint accuracy, as if they’ve never left the game. What true masters and champions they are!

The Challenger Trophy, on the other hand, was a farce. This was a tournament I eagerly looked forward to, because in the past, it has been a good venue to see India aspirants testing themselves against the stars. It has, indeed, proved a launching pad for a number of careers – Hemang Badani, Sarandeep Singh, Sreesanth and Robin Uthappa all got their breaks in the Indian side on the backs of strong Challenger performances.

So, it defeats the purpose really to have this tournament played at a time when many of the major stars are missing in action. Yuvraj and Zaheer injured; any number of key players playing for their franchises in the Champions League; Sachin deciding it’s not worth his while to play this. It made a mockery of the very rationale of the tournament. It is supposed to have the 35 best ODI players in the country playing, which means that really, it serves its purpose if the entire list of probables for the Champions Trophy were in action here. But Ameya Shreekhande? Dhiraj Goswami? Jalaj Saxena? Really? This is the cream of the country? These are people who are not even part of any of the bloated IPL franchises. What a farce.

In the midst of that farce, though, at least three things came shining through:

1. That Munaf Patel, when he is good, is very good. And we still don’t know which side of the bed he’ll get out of on any given day. The man who made the India Blue batting line-up look like that of a club second XI in the finals was the man who allowed no. 11 and genuine bunny Ashok Dinda smash him to all corners in the first game. Still, Munaf has started the season strongly, with a 5-for in the Irani Trophy as well. Given our current fast bowling problems, he looks like he has bowled himself into contention for a recall.
2. That Sudeep Tyagi is a genuine prospect. I liked him when I saw him in the IPL, and I liked him even more in this tournament. He is nippy, hits the deck hard, and jags it around sharply either way. He can occasionally bowl too short and be expensive, but with a little maturity he should be able to work on and improve his lengths. At that point, he could be quite a handful. He has come off a strong summer, being the top wicket-taker in the emerging players tournament in Australia as well. If Zaheer Khan is fit, then there may not yet be place for Tyagi in the Indian side, but I think he is knocking at the doors louder than most.
3. That Wasim Jaffer is still one of the best batsmen in Indian cricket. He has come off a sensational season last year, and has started this season in much the same vein. And what a delight he is to watch when in full flow! I don’t see him breaking into an Indian one-day side with Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambhir in the top order. But those who dismiss him as a Test match specialist probably don’t realize or remember that now he has scores of 143, 178 and 179 in domestic one-day competitions – three of the highest scores made in the shorter version of the game in this country. Even if there is no place for him in the one-day side, surely, surely he should be in the frame for a Test match spot? He should at least be the reserve opener, though one could make a strong case for him being more worthy than Yuvraj Singh of a place in the Test playing 11.

Given this, then, much of the side for the 7-ODI series against Australia selects itself, except for two or three tricky spots. I am assuming Zak will be fit, since he has started bowling in the nets; and that Yuvraj won’t, since broken fingers are likely to take up to 6 weeks to heal. So –

The top 5 is straightforward – Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Dravid and Dhoni. Gambhir is the ideal man to be vice-captain in Yuvraj’s absence, and I agree with Sehwag that Gambhir is the ideal man to be vice-captain, period. Unlike Yuvraj, Gambhir is a fixture in the side in all forms of the game; his form, attitude and commitment are unquestionable; and he has a very good relationship with Dhoni, who gave him the backing and the confidence to come good in the first place.

The batting spot up for grabs is the no. 6 spot. Virat Kohli has leapfrogged over Rohit Sharma in the India stakes at the moment. There is a part of me that isn’t entirely happy with this, because I think Rohit is, technically, a better batsman. Indeed, I think he is one of the best batsmen in India today, a certain star for the future. But there’s no question that on form, Kohli wins out, so I can see the logic in this. So – the no. 6 spot is a direct contest between Kohli and Suresh Raina. Kohli is the form player – he has made 74 in his last outing for India, and before that was top scorer in the emerging players’ tournament in Australia. But I think Raina is the better, more mature batsman. He has struggled a bit in the past couple of months, since his weakness to the short ball was exposed in the T20 World Cup. But he has shown his mettle over the past couple of years, and I think performance over two years should count for more than performance over two months.

The real problem, though, is the all-rounder’s spot, and I think Dhoni was spot on when he diagnosed this as a major problem. It looks like Harbhajan Singh, who batted at 3 and 4 in the Challenger Trophy, may be getting groomed for that no. 7 spot. In some ways, that is an intriguing thought – Bhajji’s batting has improved tremendously over the past couple of years, and he has a particularly good record against the Aussies. It will also allow us to play five frontline bowlers, which is not a bad idea given the recent struggles of our fast bowlers. But I would personally argue against it. I think there is a big gap between the duties of a no. 7 and a no. 8, and Bhajji is someone who is developing into an excellent no. 8, but doesn’t have the technique to be a long-term no. 7. One expects a no. 8 to be the occasional thorn in the flesh, to come up with the occasional match-winning cameo. But a no. 7 needs to be someone a team can rely upon to make a 50 under any situation, and Bhajji is not such a good batsman to be able to do that. The long-term solution to the problem lies in finding a good all-rounder, not in coming up with stop-gap solutions.

Unfortunately, the cupboard is rather bare on this front, which is why it is so important, in principle, to take good care of Irfan Pathan, since he is the one genuine all-rounder in the country. The Indian one-day side without Irfan is rather like the England Test side without Andrew Flintoff – the balance just isn’t right. Unfortunately, Irfan himself was injured and so missed the Challenger series, so under these circumstances I don’t see him coming right back into the thick of things against Australia.

Therefore, I really don’t know that we can do better than Yusuf Pathan at the moment. Yusuf has certainly been a disappointment for India so far, and is probably one of the people whose place is most on the line. But his talent is unquestionable. Shane Warne regards him as the cleanest hitter in the game today along with Andrew Symonds. So I think there is a case here for persistence, if only because there is no clear or better alternative on offer.

Indeed, the only two realistic alternatives are Abhisekh Nayar and Ravindra Jadeja, and I think Yusuf is a better bet than either. Nayar has had fewer opportunities, for sure, but he too is much the same type of batsman as Yusuf, a bit of a late-order slogger. And Yusuf is by far the better bowler, capable of bowling 5 or 6 overs in any given day. Jadeja, meanwhile, I think has it in him to be a frontline bowler, but I’m not too sure of his batting. His inability to up the ante was evident both in the T20 World Cup and in the Challengers, and a no. 7 who gets bogged down is not really a recipe for success. Jadeja is a good cricketer. He is someone who has proved his mettle in domestic cricket, and someone who I think has it in him to become the sort of utility cricketer that Ravi Shastri was. But somehow, I see his batting as more suited for Test cricket. I see him more as someone who is a good Test player who could develop, as Shastri did, into a good one-day player with experience, rather than the other way round. So, with Yuvraj’s place up for grabs, there may be more of a case for playing him at 7 in Tests (with Dhoni at 6), than at 7 in ODIs. For now, therefore, I would stick with Yusuf, tell him that he has the run of 7 games, and hope that he makes the most of his opportunity. And then I would spend the upcoming domestic season taking a very close look at Irfan, Nayar and Jadeja, and also looking out for other all-round possibilities. The three who are most enticing are – the Delhi stalwart Rajat Bhatia, who is one of those honest, no-nonsense cricketers who are worth their weight in gold; UP’s youngster Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has already had one good Ranji season, and will surely come into the reckoning if he has another; and Stuart Binny, now released from the ICL and therefore someone to start taking a look at. But it’s not clear that any of these three have done enough to be thrown into a high pressure debut series against the Aussies.

In the bowling, Bhaj is the obvious choice as lead spinner, though it must be said that Amit Mishra outbowled him in the Champions Trophy. Bhaj’s performance over the past year and his record against Australia means that I’ll stick with him as the no. 1 spinner. But there is depth developing in the spin department. Both Mishra and Pragyan Ojha are quality bowlers; I still think Ramesh Powar is good enough to play for India; and youngsters like Piyush Chawla and Ravichandran Ashwin are prospects in the pipeline worth keeping an eye on. So it is important to make clear to Bhaj that he cannot take his place for granted, and that only performance and not seniority will keep him in the side.

In the pace department, Zaheer Khan’s return won’t come a moment too soon, and Ashish Nehra’s second coming is as pleasing as it is surprising. These two should have unquestionably been leading the Indian attack at this stage in their careers, and it is nice to see that might actually happen. So it is the third seamer’s spot that is most in doubt.

Ishant Sharma has come under enormous scrutiny, but here (as with Raina and Yusuf), I would opt for persistence. I think his problem is different from, say, R.P. Singh’s. R.P. has just not shown consistency at any point in his career. He is a terrific bowler, but his bowling ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous with no rhyme or reason. He needs a kick up the backside. Ishant, on the other hand, is going through a loss of form and confidence, which is a normal occurrence in the second season of someone’s career. As both Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad have pointed out, dropping him is not the answer – it will only further dent his confidence. Like Bhaj, Ishant has a good record against Australia; and it’s not clear that his most likely replacement, Munaf Patel, will turn up to work on any given day. Indeed, even in the midst of this bad form, there have been glimpses of incisive bowling, and there were some glimmers of form in the Challengers as well. What has been missing is the consistency that made him such a handful last year, as an excellent couple of overs alternates with a couple of bad ones. Having Zak back in the side will I think take a lot of pressure off him, and he’s someone I am not yet ready to give up on.

Kohli and Mishra are obvious candidates to be in the reserves, and, as I’ve already mentioned, Munaf has done enough to get a recall at the expense of R.P. Singh, my doubts about his temperament notwithstanding. My last seamer’s spot would go to Praveen Kumar, who remains one of India’s most consistent performers in the shorter format; and if Zak isn’t fit, there’s a good case to have him be in the starting line-up ahead of Munaf.

So, playing XI:

1. Virendra Sehwag
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Gautam Gambhir (V)
4. Rahul Dravid
5. Mahendra Dhoni © (W)
6. Suresh Raina
7. Yusuf Pathan
8. Harbhajan Singh
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Ishant Sharma
11. Ashish Nehra

Reserves:

12. Virat Kohli
13. Praveen Kumar
14. Munaf Patel
15. Amit Mishra

If Zaheer not fit: Praveen Kumar / Munaf Patel move into playing 11, and Sudeep Tyagi comes into reserves.