A probable side for the ICC World Cup 2011

We are round about ten matches away from the all important world cup and for the first time ever it does look like we have a team at our disposal that matches the pre- cup hype

Unlike the earlier occasions, we now have excellent bench strength which not only makes the management feel secured when team India starts its campaign come February, it also keeps those in the playing eleven on their toes all the time. The fact that the world cup is staged in the sub-continent does have its own advantage for our team, as even a few otherwise good players might look unassailable under home or home-like conditions.

Under such circumstances, it would not be too bad an idea to put together a probable playing eleven and over all a sixteen member squad for the mega event, going by the current form of our players. There are certain players who would walk into the side by their sheer class; there are a few who would do so by form, and at least one that I can think of by his name.

We would go by batting positions as that would give us a chance to evaluate each of the players as per the requirement of the order in which he would most probably play.

Number One: Virender Sehwag walks into this position by talent, experience, name and whatever you can think of. He is ‘the one’ who has the ability to single handedly carry India on his shoulders to the title. Known as the most dangerous batsman of his era, it does not take much time for this destructive player to turn any game on its head, when in full flow. And by making opposition constantly think about his frightful presence on the crease, Sehwag allows batsmen at the other end to score freely without any pressure, till he is out there in the middle. The only negative about this awesome stroke maker is that he takes too many risks and in the process provides that many opportunities to the opposition to claim his wicket. But all said and done, with the kind of impact he makes, he is the most automatic choice for any side in any type of match irrespective of its nature. Hence, without any dispute, he plays in our team at the number one position.

Number Two: This position belongs to the little master Sachin Tendulkar by his choice. And his choice is our choice with pleasure. He is in the form of his life, even otherwise, twenty years of experience is just mind boggling. His name alone could elevate any side to an entirely different level both mentally and otherwise. We are fortunate to have the master in our side and his name does send down a few scares to all the oppositions. He can bat through the innings, attack or defend at will or just control the game with his mere presence out there in the middle. I would prefer him to play right through though, as that would keep the advantage with India all along, what with all the destructive players coming in at the other end. So no dispute here as well for the number two position.

Number Three: This has got to be the most controversial position in terms of selecting a batsman. Ever since Rahul Dravid has(read has been) stopped playing limited over cricket, this position has been up for grabs and a number of players have batted here with varied amount of success. Of late, an automatic selection into the side, Gautam Gambhir had made this position his own, as he didn’t get to open due to the presence of Sachin and Sehwag in the lineup. Batsmen like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina and sometimes captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has also batted in this position. My vote though, would go to Virat Kohli as he is one of the most talented young players India has in the recent times. He is aggressive, he has got a tight defense and more than that he has got the ability of batting under pressure. This might look a bit unfair to Gambhir, but Virat to me comes into this side as much due to his mental strength as his undeniable talent. Gambhir is just an excellent back up for the opening slot, in event of injury to Sachin or Sehwag. 

Number Four: Who else can bat in this position when Yuvraj Singh is fit? He has been a clear match winner for India at number four for many years now and we all know what kind of impact he could make to the lineup. He just has to get back his confidence in the forth coming ten matches before the world cup. This is yet another position which has got no dispute to it with Yuvraj sealing it easily with his sheer heroics over the years. He has got unbelievable respect of all the oppostion, something he thoroughly deserves. When in full flow, he is truely a sight to behold. The fact that he has been around for close to a decade now, is another fact that can't be ignored. From whatever we have seen of him in the solitary match against Australia, he looked tremendusly hungry and determined and that augurs well for India's world cup campaign.

Number Five: This position goes to the prodigious Suresh Raina for the kind of talent he brings into the side. Here is a batsman who can play freely, take up the role of a Virat Kohli or a Yuvraj Singh depending upon the requirement, can bat during the power play or slog overs, clear the field with the most amazing shots and most importantly can change a match in five to ten overs. Even the critisism that he doesn't handle the short stuffs well enough can't be held against him in the sub-continent pitches, as here, he is not going to get that many short-pitched balls. He is quickly proving to be yet another match winner for India in the shorter version of the game.You could argue that Dhoni should bat at this position, but then I feel Dhoni could bat at any position, when not batting at his customary number six position.

Number Six: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has looked to bat at this position of late and in probability, will continue to do so as a rule. He is a batsman who can both be aggressive and defensive, can control the game much like Sachin, and most importantly can provide a sense of security to the dressing room. An excellent reader of the game, it only helps that he has the coolest head on his shoulders. He also plays the role of a floater to the perfection, who can bat at any position, when the occasion so demands. This is going to be his first world cup as the captain and expectations are certainly going to be sky high. But Mahi, being Mahi, has never allowed any pressure to get to him or his team, which in itself is a tremendus achievement. He has already been proved to be one of the most successful captains India has ever had, and a victory in the world cup would be just about perfect.

Number Seven: Undoubtedly the most difficult position to fill in, India has perhaps too little options here. Ideally a side needs a genuine all-rounder at this position, which India has been struggling to unearth ever since Kapil Dev hung his boots. Utility players who could do a bit of everything have not been good enough in the international scene as we have noticed in the past. We have tried Robin Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Abhishek Nayar to fill in that slot over the past decade, but Robin was the only one who at least looked like a temporary solution. Others have been far from it. Recently, the team management has backed Ravindra Jadeja for quite some time, to bat at that position, without realizing that the lad is not ready for such a task. At best, Jadeja is a push-and-run player who can succeed only in first class level with the amount of batting talent he has. Dhoni seems to have taken Shane Warne too seriously when he called Ravindra the ‘rock star’ of Rajasthan Royals.

In my opinion, the best man for the job out of the limited options that we currently have could have been Irfan Pathan, who could have provided the much needed fifth bowler option and a more than useful lower order bat, who had the ability to handle the pressure of international cricket. By not selecting him, we are not only demoralizing him, also doing tremendous injustice to Indian cricket.

Since due to some inexplicable reasons Irfan can’t be picked in the side, we must pick his brother Yusuf Pathan in this slot, as we are playing the world cup in India, where the conditions are going to suit his kind of stroke play, and this powerful striker has the ability to clear any ground on his day. Also, Yusuf does provide the option of batting a bit up in the order when spinners are operating. He can even chip in with a few overs to fill in that fifth bowler’s slot, doing almost a similar job with the ball as Jadeja does. To be fair to him, he has not been given a decent run in the side, considering the complexities that come with the role.

More than anything else, he is a far better choice over the can’t-bat-can’t-bowl Ravindra Jadeja.

Number Eight: This position goes to the most experienced spinner of India, Harbhajan Singh. He has hardly done anything great of late, but experience can’t be ignored. And we don’t have too many choices as well. The only competition you can think of for this sardar is Ashwin, who can also be a decent batsman, but when the stage is as big as the world cup, your number one spinner has to be there in your side. Guys like Piyush Chawala don't even come close to be in a second string side, so Harbhajan make it in our team by the sheer strength of his experience. Harbhajan’s ability with the bat too seals the position in his favor, beyond any kind of doubt whatsoever. Of course, as you are goiug to find later, we shall have Ashwin as a back up for this sole specialist spinner in the side.

Number Nine: Zaheer Khan, one of the best quick bowling options that India has, walks into this position. He is everything that a captain needs as his bowling spearhead. Zaheer bowl with a probing line, provides early break-throughs, contains runs, comes back in a second spell to break partnerships to hand India the advantage. He guides the junior fast bowlers and takes off a lot of responsibility from Dhoni's shoulders. His ability to reverse the old ball comes in handy in Indian conditions. The only thing that has been missing in his armory has been that potent yorker that was his main strenght when he broke into the Indian team as a rookie pacer. But he more than makes up for it with his variation of pace and length. He has been amazing over the past few years and there need not be any debate here.

Number Ten: Ashish Nehra, too, seems to have done enough in the recent past to grab this position, due to his ability and experience. He has been excellent for the past one year or so and it would be really difficult to ignore him. Ever since he started to get back his rythm bowling for the Mumbai Indians, he has pretty much looked the potent bowler of the past. The fact that he was one of our main bowlers alongside Zaheer in the 2003 world cup where India made it to the final, also makes a strong case in his favor. In recent times he has spearheaded the Indian pace attack, whenever Zaheer has been out of the side due to either injury or was given rest to manage work load. Nehra has accepted this challenge and has come out with flying colors.

Number Eleven: We have to choose between Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel for this position and we would stick to Ishant to start with, more due to the steely resolve that we saw in his character in the recent Mohali Test. He is a handy customer to have, when he is disciplined and this is something he seems to be working on. We have been hearing a lot of positive feed back about Ishant of late, and even if a part of that is close to true, we have a much improved fast bowler in our side. Even otherwise, he is the only one bowler we have who could be called a fast bower in its real sense and it worth a risk to have him. In event of his leaking runs or proving ineffective, we will have back up in Munaf Patel, who could be brought into the side.

That completes the playing eleven. We have seven batsmen and four bowlers in the line-up. As has been seen in the past, the fifth bowler’s quota has to be shared between the part timers. In this eleven, we have Yusuf, Yuvraj, Raina and Sehwag who could share the work load. In spinner friendly conditions of the sub-continent, they should prove more than sufficient for the job.

Having selected the playing eleven, the next task is to select five back up players. That doesn’t look too difficult though. Gautam Gambhir, who could not find a place in the first eleven walks in here in strength of his invaluable experience, whereas Rohit Sharma comes in as a back up to the middle order due to his class. We need to have Dinesh Karthik as the backup for Dhoni, who could also be used as a batsman at any position. A spinner in Ashwin and a medium pacer in Munaf Patel would complete the lineup.

One could notice a couple of important omissions here. Murali Vijay is one such batsman who has performed superbly in the recent past, but Gambhir’s experience and Dinesh’s wicket keeping are too hard to ignore, especially when both these guys can be played as openers. Similarly, Praveen Kumar might look another notable omission, but to me, he is a very hittable bowler in Indian conditions. He is good when the ball does move around, which is rarely the case in India.

Well, that, in my opinion, is arguably the best line up that we can field for the forth coming world cup and I’m sure we are not going to see too many deviations from this list when we do see the actual squad being announced.

We just hope, all of them are fit at the end of the South African series

Cheteshwar Pujara.....a well deserved break

We  had been hearing about Cheteshwar Pujara since time immemorial, or so it seems.

Finally, we got to see him in action during the recently concluded Bangalore Test. Well, to be honest, I was quite curious about this young lad from Saurastra Ranji team. And by the sheer volume of runs that he had been scoring over the past four seasons, he was attracting head lines in all sports columns. But I had my doubts, I always wondered if Pujara was good enough for international cricket. I have followed domestic cricket from close quarters and have seen many a cricketers of legendary status in the domestic circuit coming croppers in the international scene. Ajay Sharma, Vijay Bharadwaj, Dinesh Mongia, Jacob Martin and Hemang Badani come to my mind whose international careers were cut short for whatever reason and there are a few like Amol Mazumdar and Jitender Singh, whose career never took off. All these players are heavy scorers in domestic cricket, but could never do well in the international platform.

A few years back, when I was a student, I had bumped into Jitender Singh, who used to open with Ajay Jadeja for Haryana. He was in Chennai to play a match here against Tamilnadu. Being the cricket fan that I was, I ended up inviting Jitender for dinner at my place and he obliged.

That one night of conversation with him over dinner provided me quite a bit of insight of what goes through in a domestic cricketer's mind at different phases of his career. He said that the first thing that strikes you hard when you play somebody like Andy Bishop or Glenn Mcgrath as against a domestic bowler is the amount of bounce these guys generate. You always end up playing above your waist and sometimes in front of your chest. This, more than the pace, creates a lot of inconvenience for Indian batsmen, as invariably they grow up playing deliveries below their knee level. And if you wait for loose deliveries to score your runs, you just keep waitiing, they never come your way. Which essentially means, batsmen who can adjust to this change can prosper, others will fade away like the few names mentioned  above.

Coming back to Cheteshwar Pujara, he had scored over four thousand runs in four seasons with fourteen hundreds and fifteen fifties. But as I had mentioned earlier, I never judge a batsman by the number of runs, but the manner in which he scores them. I had seen Pujara briefly during the IPL, where he turned up for the Kolkata Knight Riders. What he proved there was, his game was not cut out for the T20s, not for that season at least. And I was breathlessly waitng to see if Pujara is able to make that required adjustment for international cricket.

Could not get to see much of him in the first inning of the Bangalore test as he got a shooter of a delivery early in his knock, but when he took guard in the second innings at number three, under the most trying circumstances, he looked a different player all together. I closely watched the replay and was kind of satisfied with what I saw. I didn't see any silken grace there, but a tremendus amount of grit and determination was on display. At one end Vijay was his usual self, driving and punching with lyrical smoothness and at the other end, this twenty two year old debutant was courageously attacking world class bowlers like Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Hauritz.

Pujara has got an upright stance, he looks comfortable both on his back and front foot, he is quite a natural driver on either side of the wicket and hee did look good against short stuff, though only a few short balls were bowled to him. You have got to say that he has a good technique, but he doesn't look as copy-book-like as Rahul Dravid. As Sunil Gavaskar rightly pointed out, his body language has some similarity with yester year batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu. He plays like a work-man. His huges scores indicates that he has got that penchant for playing long innings. So overall, a pretty satisfactory candidate for test cricket, you could say at this moment. He has a bright future no doubt, but still I would like to see him on a bouncy wicket against quality fast bowling.

All said and done, something tells me that Pujara will succeed in the international level. As they say, its not the most talented man who comes good, it is the one who belives he is good.

And Pujara certainly believes he is good enough for the big stage.

Vijay has got it in him to make it big, really really big!!

The more I see of this lad from Tamilnadu, the more I grow an admirer of his. He has got this natural gift of easiness in his shots that makes you feel you are watching another VVS Laxman in action. Well, this is not to compare the young Vijay with the classy Hyderabadi, but there are certain subtle similarities in their strokeplay for sure. Both these right handers do not seem to hit the ball, but just caress it while playing down the ground. Both these batsmen have got amazing timing, that makes the ball speed off the surface after it crosses the infield. Talking of the differences, Laxman certainly exudes more class than Vijay, whlie the later seem to have more power at his disposal, as we have witnessed in his spectacular T20 knocks for the Chennai Super King.

Vijay is light on his feet and quick in his movements, has got a tight and solid defence and above all his balance on the crease is exemplery. Where I would like to see him improve though, is at his backfoot play. He could certainly work on his pull and hook shots. And he needs to realize that he is indeed a special player and must capitalize on the limited opportunities that he is going to get as Indian cricket is full of superstars.

I never judge a player by the volume of runs he scores or number of centuries he hits. What I look for in a player is the manner in which he gathers those runs. That's why I feel Vijay could serve Indian cricket for long alongside Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.

I truely believe that we are going to have these three and in all probability Vijay as the fourth as the next batch of heroes of Indian cricket. The talent of Raina, the class of Sharma and the mental toughness of Kohli are almost certain to take them a long way ahead. If you cosider them to be the next Sachin (Rohit), Dravid (Virat) and Ganguly (Raina), then Vijay has every chance of fitting in that line up as an equivalent of Laxman. That could  be the batting mainstay for the next decade or so.  

As I write this post I take a glance at the television and I find Vijay charging down the track to Nathan Hauritz and lofting him for a tremendus six over long on.  I just hope, he doesn't give it away after yet another 30 plus knock.