Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Srikkanth plays with a dead bat

The selection was even more conservative than I thought. All five seniors have been included. A promising strokeplayer like Rohit Sharma, who has already played some memorable knocks at the international level, has been discarded from the Test side after warming the bench in Sri Lanka. His replacement is a defensive Badrinath, who has done nothing spectacular in the few international exposures he's had. He may well deserve a place on the strength of his domestic record, but certainly not ahead of Rohit Sharma who has already earned his international spurs. The only positive is the inclusion of Amit Mishra, ahead of the claims of Piyush Chawla, who I think lacks bite, and Pragyan Ojha, who looks steady without being dangerous. But then, Mishra is unlikely to get a game barring injury to Kumble or Bhajji, and he too may find himself out of the team after hanging around with it for a while, like Sharma.

6 comments:

Viswanathan said...

Maybe it is the Gavaskar influence.

Unknown said...

In more ways than you think, ott.

Trideep said...

I guess RS exclusion was expected. he has proved good.. but only in the shorter versions. His record in domestic 3-4 day matches is not very good. he has age on his side.. so if he works hard.. he will be in the test side..

straight point said...

i feel uneasy calm in selection...there more back end thing going than what meets the eye...

Unknown said...

trideep, another badrinath failure, and a rohit sharma century prove my point. rohit has made his mark already at the international level, and that counts for more than domestic stats which people like wasim jaffer keep piling up.

Anonymous said...

Badrinath scored 2 in today's match. Rohit Sharma made 105. Just pointing out facts. And this against a full strength Aussie attack. If the Board President's team beats the Aussies in 4 days, and the ageing seniors lose to them in 3 days in Bangalore, will at least then would we stop hearing this chorus of there being 'no alternative' to the seniors? I don't think so. Some excuse will be trotted out for the seniors yet again and they will continue to play on regardless of their flow shows — one more Test, one more series, more one chance. After all, what does one more loss for India matter in the scheme of things? Its a pathetic beginning that the Srikanth-led selection panel has made. A LKG student would have picked a better team.