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.
M aware about that, but Wriddhiman Saha, who was the vice captain in that series, who is being groomed to replace Dhoni in tests, gave a much better performance, he wasn't outstanding but he had a decent series and was the third highest run getter for India. He should have been the captain in Pujara's absence, instead he is being replaced by Naman Ojha who isn't even half good as compared to Saha when it comes to keeping.
I know Mukund has the potential, but its really strange that he is named the captain ahead of Saha and even Shikhar Dhawan who are both out of the team.
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.
Thats true, but even if Ashwin is in good form, he will be playing more of a supporting role in those conditions, it will be really good when he performs, but when he doesn't the other 3 pacers will have a lot more workload, we shouldn't be relying much on a spinner in foreign conditions, even Harbhajan has a bowling average of 48 in Aus, SA and Eng, m not ruling out the role of a spinner completely, because he might chip in with some good performances here and there and on the 4th and 5th day he might get a bit more useful, but we cannot put more responsibility on him.
Whether Irfan is selected or not, going with 5 bowlers is important, the 4 bowlers strategy is really good on Sub continental wickets, but its not going to work everywhere atleast for India.
I recommended Irfan because I think if he bats at 7 with Ashwin at 8, it wouldn't weaken the batting that much and at the same time there would a bit more variety and depth in the bowling. But even if he is not considered, the team should go with 5 bowlers, its a bit of a risk, but its better to try something new as the 4 bowlers strategy has failed miserably for India.
I think we are need of a pace bowling all rounder, I was having high hopes with Jaskaran Singh a couple of years back, I thought he will be groomed and will be a much more finished player in 2-3 years, but he has just dissappeared.
Here's a short video of him from IPL,
Jaskaran Singh to Shikhar Dhawan - YouTube
Maybe Kapil Dev can come out of retirement and solve our problem....
