India team for tri-series

I am still too depressed from Sydney to write a post-mortem (which really would be a post-mortem for Indian Test cricket, in a true sense). So I thought I would distract myself by looking ahead to the ODIs. It is clear that this is where the priorities of our administrators and our captain lie in any case. So below is my team for this. It will be full of controversial selections, selections that I think are important, but that won’t be heeded.

First – I think it is time for Dhoni’s captaincy to end. This will not happen, but it must. I am amazed that everyone is baying for the blood of a range of other scapegoats – it was Gambhir until he saved himself with 80, or Kohli, or Laxman, who is still far better than any of the young pretenders to his place – but no one is questioning Dhoni, who has been completely inadequate with the bat and as captain. Quite simply, he was never an exceptional keeper; he was never a good enough batsman to play Tests successfully on bowler-friendly conditions abroad. (A total of two half-centuries in 13 Tests in England and Australia is scathing indictment of this fact. Even our bowling all-rounders such as Ravichandran Ashwin or Irfan Pathan could do better than that, so to have such an inadequate batsman play at 7 is a disaster). What left him unscathed was the myth of his wonderful captaincy. That myth now stands thoroughly exposed. If he is not good enough to be part of a Test XI in conditions abroad, then he shouldn’t be captaining India. In any case, he has achieved all that he can hope to achieve in limited overs cricket with World Cup wins in 50 and 20 over formats, and has himself said that it is not certain he will be around for the 2015 World Cup. (Of course, he knows he will be shown up in a World Cup in Australian conditions). So the time to build for the future in terms of team leadership is now. Dhoni has given Indian cricket whatever he can as captain, and his continuation at the helm is the surest ticket to a continued downward slide.

Dhoni still remains a fine limited overs batsman, so he would remain in my team. And like Ricky Ponting, he should have the humility to be in the team as an ordinary player. If he doesn’t, I have no problems with him returning to Ranchi and riding his motorcycles. And his replacement should, quite obviously, be Gautam Gambhir, who is the person best-suited to be India’s long-term captain. He is a better captain than Sehwag, and Sehwag is unlikely to be playing when the 2015 World Cup rolls around, at which time he will be 37. I think the only reason Viru was made vice-captain was so that Dhoni wouldn’t be threatened by someone, like Gambhir, who could replace him as captain in the long-term.

In terms of the batting line-up, I think there are really only two or three tricky questions. The first is – should Tendulkar still be playing ODIs? Personally, I think it would have been wonderful if he had just retired from all limited overs after the World Cup win. He is not going to be around for the next World Cup, and it would have been a fitting occasion to quit. But I do think he should play this tournament. This is partly because he is the only batsman who has looked equal to the task of playing Down Under in this series. But it is mainly because I don’t expect him to get to this 100th 100 in the Tests, and would welcome any opportunity for him to get this utterly over-hyped and meaningless milestone out of the way so that he can get back to just playing at his best in Tests again.

The second is whether Yuvraj Singh should be selected. He has said that he is available, and in India the only thing that merits selection of a star player is his say-so. But as one can see for the Aussies, getting into the side means actually proving match-fitness, and that is I think a basic criterion that should be imposed for our players as well. Yuvraj has barely played any cricket since the World Cup. (In the couple of Tests he played against the West Indies, he looked completely inadequate). I don’t care if he was man-of-the-series in the World Cup: if he wants to play for India, he needs to show that he is fit enough to play by actually playing domestic cricket. Our one-day middle order is quite healthy as it is, with Virat Kohli continuing to excel, Rohit Sharma coming into his own, and Manoj Tiwary getting into the act with a 100 against the West Indies. So there is no place for Yuvraj in my team. Indeed, I see Virat Kohli as a leader in the making, and would have him be Gambhir’s deputy.

This means a top 6 of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Rohit and Dhoni. I would select Manoj Tiwary ahead of Suresh Raina, who in my mind remains India’s most overrated cricketer. Raina didn’t even make much of a mark at home, in one-days, against the West Indies, in a series that met all three of his criteria for success (limited overs, flat tracks, weak opposition). Tiwary has been piling on the runs in domestic cricket in obscurity for years; technically, he has the ability to be not just a successful one-day batsman, but part of a future Test middle-order; and it is high time he is given a proper run. Raina’s continued inclusion will otherwise be at the expense of a genuinely promising player, someone whom Sourav Ganguly, the best judge of talent in India, once called “the future of Indian cricket”.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin select themselves as the two spinners. In the seam department, I use the same principle for Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel as I do for Yuvraj: even if they are fit (and there is no indication that they are), then need to be match-fit before they can be selected. So, neither of them will be in my team. Zaheer and Ishant of course select themselves to lead the attack. For me, the third seamer, without question, should be Irfan Pathan. He should have been in Australia already for the Tests, but for the ODI’s, with his additional batting capabilities, his selection should be a no-brainer. (I cannot imagine why he is being excluded, it cannot be for cricketing reasons). A playing 11 with Jadeja at 7, Ashwin at 8, and Irfan at 9 will be one with incredible batting depth; but just as a bowler, Irfan is good enough to be in India’s playing 11, especially given Australian weakness against quality swing bowling.

This only leaves the reserves. I have already indicated Tiwary as one, Umesh Yadav should obviously be another. (Irfan pushes ahead of him in the 11 because of his far superior batting). So this leaves two more spots, one for a batsman and one for a bowler. And here, I would bring in two cricketers from outside the current fold.

I think the batsman should be someone who can also keep wickets, because in a long tri-series played far away one cannot count on one keeper’s fitness. Parthiv Patel has been given enough chances and found wanting. So I would go back to someone who last played for India four years ago, but who has since then improved greatly on his batting and fitness while developing more than adequate keeping skills: Robin Uthappa. Uthappa is a wonderfully versatile player to have on the bench, someone who can be a floater in the order and therefore come in as a top order replacement, a lower middle order replacement, and be a back-up keeper. It is high time he is given another run.

My back-up seam bowler will also be from outside the fold. I think Vinay Kumar is a game tryer and a useful one-day bowler, but I just don’t think that his military medium pace is going to threaten Australia’s batsmen. What we need, again, is a genuine swing bowler, ideally someone who can swing it at nippy pace. Someone who has Sreesanth’s bowling style, but with brains. And the candidate there for me is Ashok Dinda, who has been in outstanding form for Bengal this year. He has had a few random chances with the team based on a strong IPL performance in 2008, but he is a much better bowler now than he was then. He is 27, the age when fast bowlers enter their peak, and is also someone who can become a part of India’s Test options. He is a far better bowler than either Vinay or Mithun, and should be part of the team.

Depressed rants on the Tests will follow in due course, but for now, my ODI team:

1. Virendra Sehwag
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Gautam Gambhir ©
4. Virat Kohli (V)
5. Rohit Sharma
6. Mahendra Dhoni (W)
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Irfan Pathan
10. Zaheer Khan
11. Ishant Sharma

Reserves:

12. Manoj Tiwary
13. Robin Uthappa (W)
14. Umesh Yadav
15. Ashok Dinda