It is that time of the year when people talk about the casualities of the world cup and the season to look forward to. It is that time, when the selectors come up with their version of the Future Team India, the one which they hope will be a start for the renaissance of Indian Cricket. The selection is done and the 15 players who will be representing Team India in both the tests and One dayers have been picked.
It has been an interesting selection though. Now, the flavour of Indian cricket over the past month or so has been youth. The BCCI officials wanted a young team led by an experienced captain. The media and the Cricket fans wanted a young team. Lot of names were thrown into the ring with the likes of Tiwari, Rohit Sharma , Badrinath and others being brought into discussion. There were also talks about giving the tried talent like Kaif and Raina another chance. Overall, the much celebrated word has been Youth. But when we really look at it, we would be at loss of words to explain the selection of couple of players who cannot be put into the category of youth and we also have to be clear on the fact that, Team India performed badly in the ONE DAY world cup and so the theme of youth applies to the One day team and not so much to the Test Team.
On the one day front, there seems to be a mix of selections and omissions, interesting as well as bizarre. Tiwari and Chawla seems to be pretty interesting and exciting selections, It would be interesting to watch how Tiwari takes to international cricket and if he does justification to the talent he has shown at the Ranji level, it would be a very profitable development for Indian cricket. Chawla seems to be the one who can answer to the call of Indian cricket for a leg spinner. It has hardly been a month since one of the greatest cricketers to play for India hung his boots at the One day level and it would be great for Indian cricket if this rookie could fill in the boots of the legend. The omission of Irfan Pathan from the team does not seem to be too fair to him as he didnt get too much opportunities in the World cup to improve himself and in the warm up games that he played , he gave a decent account of himself and looked to be improving by the day. It would have done him a world of good, if he had got this opportunity to play against the Bangla tigers and pull himself into some kind of form ahead of the England tour.
Two notable omissions from the team are the probably two of the greatest One day cricketers produced by India in Sachin and Sourav. The selection committee has to be appreciated for setting an example of "resting" such players to give opportunity to the youngsters. Be it resting or dropping, this definitely is a very bold move which would not augur well with their corresponding fans. Atleast Tiwari, who probably replaces one of the above two, is a good selection. But the other replacement (Mongia or Gambhir) have been tried and tested and discarded over a period of time and they have not done much over the past season to warrant a recall into the national side. A spot in the national team has to be earned and I do not think these two have earned it. It would have been much better for Indian cricket if a fresh face had been picked instead of the tested ones.
Some of them would count themselves unlucky for having missed out on a place in the team, the likes of Badrinath, Rohit Sharma to name a few. But, when the selectors pick a team of 15, they are bound to miss out on few deserving players. All in all, they could have done much better, with all the hype that went on about the youth policy and "looking forward" messages that the officials sent to the selectors. Hope the Tiwaris and the Chawlas do justice to their talent and the hope that the selectors have placed upon them.
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