January 6, 2015, the senior selection committee selected the 15 member squad for India's quest to defend it's world champions title down under. Like any team selection this one raised several eyebrows. I feel any critic needs to be as much factual and logical as possible to understand the nuances of this selection, especially in the context of cricket filling an emotional void in every household. I feel that the team selection couldn't have been better except for a few glitches.
Firstly, the mix of batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders and variety there in has been decent. With three spinner all-rounders, one medium pace all-rounder and 4 pace bowlers the bowling department looks decent. Except for the fact that the pace bowlers lack variety in them, in the context of Bhuvaneshwar not getting much swing in Australian wickets. A left arm bowler could have been a trump-card given the vastly right-handed batsmen across all teams. But India's pace worries aren't new.
Secondly, the batting department cannot look better than this to me. However, considering Ambati Rayudu as the only Wicket-keeper replacement to Dhoni might worry a lot of people. Stuart Binny and One of the Spinners should come good when it matters. While a lot of people want Yuvraj singh to be back in the side, everybody's now waiting for the final fitness test for 4 injured Indian player on February 7th. Yuvraj has not been good enough in neither Australia nor NZ as he merely averages 30(18 matches) and 21(12 matches) respectively. With his last 19 disappointing ODI performances (Avg 18+) and 1 year break from ODI cricket standing between his excellent First-class show in the last 1 month and his selection, almost every Indian wants one of the 4 players to test negative giving space for the 2011 CWC Man of the tournament. Fingers Crossed!
Thirdly, Indian Opening vows is still troubling our team's performance as a whole. While Rahane's numbers in the past 16 months are not so encouraging his extraordinary adaptation to varied oversees condition holds the key. While Shikar Dhawan's 16 month numbers are emphatic he has struggled in Australia over the last 2 months. Rohit Sharma's inconsistency and fitness add further insult to injury. From past experiences of ODI cricket down under it can be seen that the difference between the winning and losing team has been not losing important wickets early on in the innings. May it be the 2015 Carlton-Mid triangular or the CB series of 2008 the winners have been those which have been patient in the initial and middle overs. I'm sure that most of the Australian and NZ wickets get better to bat as the innings progresses unlike most of the sub-continent wickets.
There is definitely a lot of pressure on team India. But a moral booster is that indefinitely all teams except the host have struggled in Australia and NZ. The recent dumping of SL, WI, Pak in NZ and that of England in Australia against Australia is an evidence. What India has to keep in mind is the NRR and not taking the minnows too easily. Such an approach will take India to the Knock-outs where every team will have its own problems and the team which keeps its cool will emerge winners more often than not.
Hope Dhoni's men can repeat a CB series 2008 and a CWC 2011 down under. #won'tgiveitback
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