The Indian Selection Drama

[macintosh]

I m really shocked at the team selections, MSD and the selectors have always been biased towards some players, and continue to do so.

Has Harbhajan Singh shown any improvements since he was dropped? No, has he done anything special in the domestic matches? No, then why is he in the T20 squad when we already have a much better option in R Ashwin for T20s?

Rohit Sharma has been terrible in the last series, agreed he is very talented, but why is he getting repeated opportunities when others are dropped from the team after a few bad performances?
Would an Irfan Pathan get similar opportunities if he fails miserably like Rohit did? Then why is Rohit getting so many chances.
I agree with the fact that if a player has the talent then he should be given a long run, but that hasn't been the attitude of the captain and the selection committee for other players, Why are there different set of rules for different players?

Piyush Chawla? for both tests and T20's? this is just the most bizzare selection ever, even Jadeja would have been a better option than him.

Suresh Raina for tests. Home conditions, a struggling NZ side, a nice platform for him to score a few runs.... and then struggle miserably in pitches suitable for fast bowling because of his poor technique. He is just coming in the way of other deserving youngsters who are performing well in the domestic matches.

Abhinav Mukund is named the captain of the India A team after a very poor WI tour where his average was 7.66, surprisingly, other players who didn't perform or didn't get many opportunities in that tour were dropped from the team for no reason.


Mandeep Singh and Ambati Rayudu should have been selected in the T20 squad,
Mandeep Singh has had a brilliant IPL and was the highest run getter in the Syed Mushtaq T20 tournament, his performances in the FC games have also been really good, it was the right time to give him an opportunity, Rayudu is another player who has shown a lot of promise, his ability to perform under pressure and adapt to situations can be useful in the both T20s and ODIs.

And for Tests, Irfan Pathan, Robin Bist and Kaif deserved to be in the team,
Robin Bist was the highest run scorer in the 2011-12 first-class season, he has the right technique for test cricket and is a long term prospect, and Kaif has also been scoring heaps of runs in domestic cricket, his international experience is also an added advantage, even Anil Kumble had suggested his selection in the test side.

The Indian batsmen were blamed for the recent failure in England and Australia, but it was the bowlers who were unable to perform in helpful conditions, India lacks good pace bowlers and needs to play with 5 bowlers(3 pace bowlers and 2 spinners) and Irfan is the best option in that case, his batting has improved a lot and he is in good form with the ball, having 5 bowlers would give more options to the captain.

There are just way too many flaws in the selection and management of the Indian test squad, India might win comfortably against New Zealand in home conditions but there is no long term vision because of which the team will suffer once it steps outside the sub continent.

 

[Atharv]

I m really shocked at the team selections, MSD and the selectors have always been biased towards some players, and continue to do so.

Has Harbhajan Singh shown any improvements since he was dropped? No, has he done anything special in the domestic matches? No, then why is he in the T20 squad when we already have a much better option in R Ashwin for T20s?

Rohit Sharma has been terrible in the last series, agreed he is very talented, but why is he getting repeated opportunities when others are dropped from the team after a few bad performances?
Would an Irfan Pathan get similar opportunities if he fails miserably like Rohit did? Then why is Rohit getting so many chances.
I agree with the fact that if a player has the talent then he should be given a long run, but that hasn't been the attitude of the captain and the selection committee for other players, Why are there different set of rules for different players?

Piyush Chawla? for both tests and T20's? this is just the most bizzare selection ever, even Jadeja would have been a better option than him.

Suresh Raina for tests. Home conditions, a struggling NZ side, a nice platform for him to score a few runs.... and then struggle miserably in pitches suitable for fast bowling because of his poor technique. He is just coming in the way of other deserving youngsters who are performing well in the domestic matches.

Abhinav Mukund is named the captain of the India A team after a very poor WI tour where his average was 7.66, surprisingly, other players who didn't perform or didn't get many opportunities in that tour were dropped from the team for no reason.


Mandeep Singh and Ambati Rayudu should have been selected in the T20 squad,
Mandeep Singh has had a brilliant IPL and was the highest run getter in the Syed Mushtaq T20 tournament, his performances in the FC games have also been really good, it was the right time to give him an opportunity, Rayudu is another player who has shown a lot of promise, his ability to perform under pressure and adapt to situations can be useful in the both T20s and ODIs.

And for Tests, Irfan Pathan, Robin Bist and Kaif deserved to be in the team,
Robin Bist was the highest run scorer in the 2011-12 first-class season, he has the right technique for test cricket and is a long term prospect, and Kaif has also been scoring heaps of runs in domestic cricket, his international experience is also an added advantage, even Anil Kumble had suggested his selection in the test side.

The Indian batsmen were blamed for the recent failure in England and Australia, but it was the bowlers who were unable to perform in helpful conditions, India lacks good pace bowlers and needs to play with 5 bowlers(3 pace bowlers and 2 spinners) and Irfan is the best option in that case, his batting has improved a lot and he is in good form with the ball, having 5 bowlers would give more options to the captain.

There are just way too many flaws in the selection and management of the Indian test squad, India might win comfortably against New Zealand in home conditions but there is no long term vision because of which the team will suffer once it steps outside the sub continent.

Ambati Rayudu . That player is really fantastic . As a batter he is as good as Dhoni and a much better keeper than Dhoni . He will never play for India .

 

[SaiSrini]

Ambati Rayudu . That player is really fantastic . As a batter he is as good as Dhoni and a much better keeper than Dhoni . He will never play for India .

Much better keeper than Dhoni? Are you on something? Rayudu is a makeshift keeper.

 

[Atharv]

Much better keeper than Dhoni? Are you on something? Rayudu is a makeshift keeper.

He certainly seemed a lot better than Dhoni in IPL .

 

[sifter132]

I m really shocked at the team selections

I don't think they've done a great job - agree on that. But I disagree with a lot of your points. eg.
*Harbhajan is there not because of IPL 2012 form, but because he's the most proven international T20 spinner. Ashwin's performances in T20s INTERNATIONALLY have been poor, so it gives an experienced option to turn to if Ashwin isn't doing the job.

*Rohit Sharma vs Irfan Pathan...very similar really. Pathan got about 2 years more of Test cricket than he deserved. He went cold in about 2006 and got another few tours. Rohit Sharma is in a tough spot because he has no way to find form. He gets to play a few random Ranji matches every season - and averages about 80 in those over the last few seasons. So there's a problem there: Ranji trophy is too easy for him. He's obviously very talented. So how does he improve? How can the selectors capitalise on his talent? THIS is why he keeps getting selected, the selectors are hoping he will make his mark/learn how to control his temperament.

The real answer is that he should play county cricket instead of learning how to slog in the IPL, but this will never happen in the current Indian cricket scene Same goes for Suresh Raina, arguably the same could be done for Sehwag and Gambhir too who are regularly found out in overseas Tests. They need training in overseas leagues, playing tough cricket on challenging pitches to sort out their games. Yep so I agree that selecting Raina is basically useless. He'll make easy runs, fans will fawn over him and then in a years time will wonder why he's failing on tour.

*Agree about Chawla - seems an odd call.

*Got no problem with Mukund captaining India A though. Should one bad tour with the SENIOR team mean that he loses about 5-10 spots on the batting pecking order?? I'd hope not. If there was enough potential seen in him to get a game for India, surely he's still good enough for India A, despite a few failures.

*Mandeep and Rayudu are decent options, but I'm not sure a World Cup is the place to introduce them. I think India have done the right thing, pick the established players - don't mess around too much, because this is an important tournament and not one to experiment in.

*Agree with you about the Test match bowling being a major problem...Not sure Irfan Pathan would fix that problem, but he's probably worth looking at for overseas tours. At home, just play 2 spinners and there really isn't a need for an all-rounder. The trouble comes on tour when playing only 1 spinner and it will really depend if Ashwin does any good or not. If he's not getting wickets, then maybe an all-rounder like Pathan would be needed.

 

[macintosh]

Agree with some of your points here,

1) Harbhajan has a brilliant T20 record, and Ashwin hasn't done that well in T20s that he has played so far, so I agree with you, Harbhajan's selection is justified.


2) And talking about Rohit Sharma, i just mentioned Irfan Pathan as an example(not comparing between the two of them), what I meant was that when a youngster gets selected, he should be given proper opportunities, if he has the potential, then the selectors should persist with him and not write him off after a few bad performances,
Rohit has got repeated opportunities, he deserves it, because he has the talent, but the selectors and the captain haven't dealt with other players in the same manner.
After doing really well in the domestic matches , Robin Uthappa, who was looking good to have another go at his international career, just got 2 T20's, and is dropped again. He can be a really good ODI prospect, but MSD and the current selectors have never showed faith in him.
Mohd. Kaif is another such case, he has a good amount of experience of international cricket, he has been doing extremely well in the domestic matches and he has been just too consistent to ignore in the past couple of years. Can't understand why his performances are going unnoticed.
My general point is that different individuals are given different treatment under the current management which is really unfair.

And yes Irfan did enjoy the confidence of his previous captains(not MSD) and played more test matches even though his bowling had gone terribly wrong, but that also had to with the fact that he played more as an all rounder in his last few tests and did make some important contributions with the bat as well.

You are absolutely right about the kind of practice the youngsters like Rohit Sharma and Raina need, they need to play in overseas conditions and get a bit of exposure instead of just playing in the Indian domestic tournaments. The other alternative would be of having a few bouncy pitches and the use of Kookaburra balls in the domestic matches.


3) Regarding Mukund, m talking about the recent (India A in West Indies) series, Mukund was just terrible, similarly there were some others who didn't perform well and were shown the door, only 6 players who were in that team will feature in India A's tour in New Zealand,
Robin Bist who is the highest run getter in the FC matches in 2011/12 and Parwinder Awana, who has been the best bowler in domestic matches recently have both been dropped even though they played only 1 game in that series, Shikhar Dhawan is also not given another opportunity.
First of all, the selectors shouldn't have made so many changes to the team just because of 1 bad series, and if they are making changes, then Why is Mukund rewarded with captaincy when he has performed even worse than some of the players who were dropped?


4) Its a difficult call, but I think there is no problem if we pick fresh players for the T20 WC. When India won the T20 WC in 2007, there were a few fresh players in the team with very less or no experience, but the team did well, I guess the idea should be to pick the players who are in form, because there anyways isn't much time to settle down in T20 tournaments. Mandeep and Rayudu were strong contenders compared to some others. and the WC is being played in Sub Continent, so the conditions are not very different either.


5) Irfan might not be a permanent fix to our overseas problems, but he is an automatic selection because of his ability to handle pace bowlers and his swing bowling which can be helpful in SA, Aus, Eng and NZ. When India lost 4-0 in England, the main reason was our bowling as the bowlers failed to make use of very good bowling conditions, and they weren't even able to bowl with a lot of intensity as they weren't able to cope with the work load,
same thing was repeated in the Australia tour, our bowlers struggled to dominate in helpful conditions, we have always been in desperate need of a 5th bowler who would add more depth to the bowling and at the same time not weaken the batting lineup. Regardless of how Ashwin performs, we need 5 bowlers in overseas conditions to make our bowling a bit stonger.

Agree with you about home conditions though, we don't need an all rounder. I mentioned Irfan and Kaif because they are being ignored from long. Irfan could have been picked when Zaheer was injured in England, instead RP Singh was selected who didn't play FC cricket for 6 months prior to his selection, and even in the recent Ind- Aus test series, he was ignored despite of very good domestic performances and the amount of experience he has.

 

[Sahil 7]

Ambati Rayudu . That player is really fantastic . As a batter he is as good as Dhoni and a much better keeper than Dhoni . He will never play for India .

are you alright rayudu better then dhoni ? You might be kidding

 

[khalek]

Dhoni averages 50+ in over 200 ODIs, Rayudu can never do that in his lifetime.

 

[Bevab]

He ain't better than Dhoni, but he certainly has potential to become a good batsman and keeper.


And you're moaning is meaningless. You can't pick 100 cricketers for a series. Some players are persisted with because they hold more potential for the future and have a big chance of improving. It won't apply to everybody though, for I do agree that maybe a few examples you gave are quite true.

 

[Epic]

I see more 'I like this player, why isn't he picked' than actual justification as to why he should be picked.

 

[Bevab]

That's what I said, his earlier posts too were like this, constant moaning about why a player is there despite poor performances and why a player is not picked despite good performances.

Its a team buddy. You can't chop for every series. Some of your posts do seem to be decent, but you've ruined it with meaningless points.

 

[Aalay]

are you alright rayudu better then dhoni ? You might be kidding

Might be? He is definitely joking.

Raydu is a good player but it's stupid to compare him with Dhoni. For me, the shocking selections were Chawla and Balaji. Don't really know how they made in the squad.

 

[Epic]

Might be? He is definitely joking.

Raydu is a good player but it's stupid to compare him with Dhoni. For me, the shocking selections were Chawla and Balaji. Don't really know how they made in the squad.

The decision to pick Balaji was somewhat justified, he had a pretty good run in the IPL, by far the best Indian pacer in the last edition. Chawla though, how the kerpluck did he get in? Ahead of Ojha for that matter, absolute madness.

Rahane being left out was a bit of a shock, for me at least. He did so well in the IPL and really stepped up his T20 game, only to be kept away because of a returning superstar and a man made of chance. It's okay though, not like he would've got a chance to play with Gambhir and Sehwag already in the side.

 

[sifter132]

3) Regarding Mukund, m talking about the recent (India A in West Indies) series, Mukund was just terrible, similarly there were some others who didn't perform well and were shown the door, only 6 players who were in that team will feature in India A's tour in New Zealand,
Robin Bist who is the highest run getter in the FC matches in 2011/12 and Parwinder Awana, who has been the best bowler in domestic matches recently have both been dropped even though they played only 1 game in that series, Shikhar Dhawan is also not given another opportunity.
First of all, the selectors shouldn't have made so many changes to the team just because of 1 bad series, and if they are making changes, then Why is Mukund rewarded with captaincy when he has performed even worse than some of the players who were dropped?

You are right some have been dropped, but on the other hand some have been retained. Rahane is the guy I'm thinking of. Mukund scored 46 runs @7.66) on that tour of West Indies, but Rahane scored only 62 (@10.33)! Yet Rahane has been picked in the senior team, and is even being talked up by fans as deserving a place in the Test side ahead of Raina. I'm guessing the selectors just had Mukund up towards the head of their list in the first place, and want to give him another try before discarding him for someone else.

we have always been in desperate need of a 5th bowler who would add more depth to the bowling and at the same time not weaken the batting lineup. Regardless of how Ashwin performs, we need 5 bowlers in overseas conditions to make our bowling a bit stonger.

I mentioned Ashwin because if he's bowling well, then he can bowl 30 overs a day no problem, which means that having 4 other fast bowlers to bowl the rest of the overs is probably unnecessary - could be done with only 3. And if Irfan's bowling is not quite as good as the other 3 pacemen, then all you are doing is weakening the batting. Irfan would have to be playing VERY well in that case. If Ashwin ISN'T bowling well though, the pace bowlers would be relied on for more overs and wickets and the case for Irfan is a lot stronger.

 

[icyman]

Dhoni ain't the greatest, neither is he the best, but one can't compare Ambati with him. Though ,selecting Amabati as a specialist batsman would not hurt.

Another point I agree upon is that of India A. Mukund being given captaincy is stupid.He was way below par in the Windies. No Wriddhiman Saha,who was actually the vice-captain. So, if the selectors are actually building a squad for the future,these elements need to be kept in mind.