Its high-time that Team India captain Mr. Dhoni to reassess its strategy and team combination for the world cup, if ever he(they) wants to win it. The performances in the recent matches has exposed the so-called bench strength of India, thanks to injury of some and others who opted out of it. Lets get down straight to the points ---
1. The openers, obvious choice is Sehwag with GOD, giving no. 3 spot to Gambhir. Backing it with the presence of Dinesh Karthik as bench, its in the safe hands.
2. The middle order comprising Yuvraj, Raina and Dhoni is the best any team can hope for. All are good hitters and match winners in their own. But saying that, they should look to apply themselves better, perticularly in trying conditions. The bunch of talent in this department as bench includes Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
3. Team India has adequate Pace attack and with a little help from the pitch, they can destroy any line-up. With a combo of Zaheer, Nehra and Praveen Kumar, it has enough fire power to take care of this department. And with the backing of Sreesanth,Sharma, Mithun(yet to be fully groomed), it is quite a force to reckon.
4. Spin department of TI is perticularly pretty safe in hands of Harbhajan. Backed by bench of Pragyan Ojha, its quite complete in itself. Giving unnecessary importance to this sector is not important as this department can also be handled by Yuvraj, Raina and Sehwag, each of whom can share the ball, effectively, if the need arises.
5. That leaves us with just one spot to fill, i.e. the 7TH spot, from whom we demand everything, batting, bowling and fielding i.e an Allrounder. He matters specially when the team is in a spot of bother, otherwise no one even looks for him. His performance lifts the team to a new level. As of the latest developments, an allrounder is further classified into Batting Allrounder and Bowling Allrounder. TI here has to set his priorities clear, what does it want. In my view TI doesn’t need Bowling-Allrounder, with the world cup occuring in the subcontinent, which is believed to be spinner friendly, which we already have in abundant. So considering the Batting-Allrounders, what we have is Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan(especially as the WC is occuring in Indian Subcontinent). This position, currently occupied by Ravindra Jadeja is not doing any justice to the spot and has already got ample opprtunity to prove his mettle. Its time for Others.
The Team India (that I want to see in the WC) :
(Playing -11)
1. GOD
2. Virendra Sehwag
3. Gautam Gambhir
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. MS Dhoni (Captain & WK)
7. Irfan Pathan/ Yusuf Pathan
8. Harbhajan Singh
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Praveen Kumar
11. Ashish Nehra
Bench :
1. Dinesh Karthik (Opener and WK)
2. Rohit Sharma(Middle Order)
3. S. Sreesanth(Fast Bowler)
4. Pragyan Ojha(Spinner)
5. Yusuf Pathan/ Irfan Pathan (Batting Allrounders)
Wild Cards : (Can’t say where, when and how will they come into TI, but definitely contribute a lot if they do, and I’ll love to see them :) )
1. Robin Uthappa
2. Ambati Rayudu
This is as far as I go as of now, many other players were considered, but I couldn’t put them in considering my scheme of things. This may prove a little early to get my team,but better early than late…
P.S. --- First thought of writing only status message but gradually it turned into a big thing, so changed it into a blog :D .
