The team that has been selected MS Dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul,
Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha,
Naman Ojha*, R Ashwin, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,
Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron
*Ojha has been included only for the first Test.
Up front - 18 members for a 4 test series is utter stupidity.
Not sure why we need that many in the team.
Openers - We have
Shikhar, Vijay and Rahul in the team as openers. Vijay and Shikhar should be
opening in Brisbane and Adelaide (also probably Melbourne). Don't expect Rahul
to get a chance unless they fail big time in the first 2 (or 3 tests) or one of
them gets injured. He is more going for the experience than anything else.
Rahul is selected because of the wonderful season he had last year in the
domestic series(scored over 1000 runs with 3 centuries) and the 2 centuries he
scored in Duleep trophy final.
Middle Order - Pujara,
Virat, Jinx and Rohit have been settled middle order for a while now. Rohit is
coming out of the injury and unless he scores big in the 2 one days against SL
might sit out. Raina who seems to have the backing of the current big man (Ravi
Shastri) might get a chance again in the whites.
Fast Bowlers - Bhuvi,
Shami, Ishant, Umesh, Varun. We will be playing Umesh, Bhuvi and Ishant in the
first 2 tests. Varun limped out of the first ODI against SL. Shami is not also
playing the SL series due to injury. Ishant is also down with a stiff back.
Bhuvi is on his well-earned rest and hopefully he comes charged. Bhuvi was in
the last few matches being very flat. He has to get back his swing. Varun might
get one match, don't think Shami will be lucky. Out of the 5 selected 3 are
down with injuries - that shows how vacant our bench strength is when it comes
to fast bowlers.
Spinners - Why do
we need 3? We should play 1 or max 2 (at SCG). Dhoni is known to be soft on
Jadeja and that might make us play 2 spinners which is not ideal. Ashwin did a
good job in the 2 tests that he played in England and seem to have learnt
lessons from his earlier trip down under and should be our first choice. I
would have preferred if Kuldeep was selected over Karn. Now that we have Karn
in the mix, he should get a chance in Sydney as the second choice. Jadeja is ok
for ODIs but it is high time we stop picking him up for tests. Someone should
put their foot down when MSD asks for his inclusion.
Wicket Keepers - Saha
has established himself as the second choice and Ojha is selected as backup
only for the first test where MSD is not available.
We should have selected a 16 member team - Shami and Jadeja are
over kill.
I feel that in certain cases the selectors go primarily by the IPL
(Karn) and the recent effect (Rahul). Hopefully they do well if they get
chances. Gone are the days when unless a player wont be picked unless he performs consistently in 3 or 4 series.
PS - On the ODI front - Happy that Uthappa is back in the mix
and he being picked as the keeper might give him a chance to go to Australia
for the world cup.
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