Spineless and Insipid

.. those are the only words which come into my mind to describe the performance of the #1 test cricket team in the world.

The situation gets worse with the selectors confirming their mindlessness, yet again, after selecting the squad for the 2nd test.

Raina (batsman), Karthik (wk), Sreesanth (bowler) -------> coming in for:

Tyagi (bowler), Saha (wk), Abhimanyu Mithun (bowler)

Saha's omission is understandable. What are Mithun and Tyagi dropped for? They didn't even play the test match! Considering that Sreesanth is just coming off an injury, and of course, Ishant Sharma seems to have lost it, it just compounds the nonsense! Given the fact that Mithun has been in good form, his selection would have been the right thing to do in the 2nd Test Match. He would have provided a good wicket taking option - what with Harbhajan Singh's and Amit Mishra's performances in this match.

Are they also accepting that Karthik is the first backup 'keeper/batsman for Dhoni? What was Saha selected for? No idea about the selectors' though process here.

Suresh Raina's selection seems to be the "safe" thing to do right now. Here too, the selectors have gone with international experience, than actually thinking about Raina's overall skills. Raina's problems with the short ball are so well known now, one can write a novel. I am not too sure this was the right thing to do.

Who else then, if it wasn't going to be Raina?

Options:

Cheteshwar Pujara

Manish Pandey

Virat Kohli

Abhishek Nayar

HEAVY scorers in the domestic setup. Enough said.

What went wrong in this test match? Plenty:

1) Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan and Amit Mishra being rendered almost useless. No excuses. Ishant Sharma needs to look at the way Morkel bowled.

2) Sehwag's dismissal in the first innings - I think his reaction after his dismissal said it all. This was the catalyst to our now famous collapse.

3) Sehwag's dismissal in the second innings - if at all I had any sympathy for him after his dismissal in the first innings, all that just went up in thin air with his irresponsible shot in the 2nd innings.

4) Murali Vijay's dismissal against the run of play, playing a sweep shot against a left-arm over the wicket spinner, given the situation - not done.

5) Tendulkar was determined to fight in the 2nd innings, but unlucky, however, the question arises again, was it a needless shot?

6) For all those people who are baying for Dravid's and Laxman's spots in the Test team, eat this.

I don't see how India is going to salvage this series. Laxman's probable return at Kolkata could prove to be a big difference. I hope to see a turnaround in the application of the Indian batsmen, otherwise, it would just end up proving that these folks don't seem to learn from their mistakes.

My ideal playing XI for the 2nd Test Match would have been:

1) Sehwag

2) Gambhir

3) Vijay

4) Tendulkar

5) Laxman/Pujara (given his technique)

6) Badrinath

7) Dhoni

8) Harbhajan

9) Zaheer

10) Mithun

11) Sreesanth/Mishra/Ojha depending on the wicket.

Ratings:

Sehwag - 6 for the century annulled by a stupid shot, and a stupid shot repeated in the 2nd innings.

Gambhir - 2 - Pace too hot to handle.

Vijay - 4 - threw it away in the 2nd innings.

Tendulkar - 7 - Unlucky. Showed what he's made of in the 2nd innings until that freak dismissal.

Badrinath - 5 - Good fighting fifty in the 1st, needless waft in the 2nd innings.

Dhoni - 3 - Hardly any contribution in this match, tried to stick around in the 2nd innings.

Saha - 3 - Stuck around in the 2nd innings, but I won't be too surprised if this is going to be his first and last test match.

Harbhajan - 2 - Listless and ineffective.

Mishra - 3 - Inconsistent but also a little unlucky.

Ishant Sharma - 1 - less said the better.

Zaheer Khan - 5 - the only Indian bowler on view, who looked like taking wickets.

Time to put your hands up fellers. The championship is at stake.

All the best @ Kolkata.

-V

Selection conundrums

I wonder at the logic behind the BCCI selection panel sometimes - selecting players who are never even the first-choice back-ups for existing specialists, be it batsmen/bowlers/wicket-keepers.

The logic astounded me even more, because Wriddhiman Saha was given an opportunity ahead of Dinesh Karthik in the squad for the 1st Test Match against South Africa. Not to take anything away from Saha who has been pretty consistent throughout this first-class season, but Karthik has been even more consistent, and figures do not lie - what with his twin 150+ scores in the Duleep Trophy final which concluded today.

Given the fact that Karthik had just one test to show his mettle against Bangladesh, it doesn't mean that you go ahead and dump him for the series against South Africa - where are you achieving consistency and maintaining the bench strength?

And yes, Murphy struck on the 1st Test Match's warm-up session. Rohit Sharma, who all along, hasn't done enough to merit his place and play consistently in the Ranji Trophy, (barring an unbeaten 309 against Gujarat, which made his average look god-like), when people like Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara have been scoring runs for fun, eventually got injured during the warm-up session.

So who replaces him? Wriddhiman Saha. A bloke who's primarily known for his keeping and lower-order batting, becomes Laxman's replacement, who's a thoroughbred, out and out batsman.

Even if one took Dinesh Karthik into consideration just for his batting, one could always argue that Karthik was more meritorious of selection.

Here's where the short sight of the selectors is seen glaringly.

Either way, India have to live with all the facts of this test match:

1) No Dravid, no Laxman or even an equivalent replacement.

2) A wicketkeeper batting at #6.

3) 2 spinners, one who doesn't have the patience to utilize a pitch which is tailor-made for him, and the other who's learning his trade, but doesn't seem to be gifted enough to trouble batsmen at the highest level, and lacks consistency.

4) 1 fast bowler who's in a rich vein of form, another, who thought he rediscovered his form, only to get back to his old ways.

5) 2 South African batsmen scoring big unbeaten centuries, ending the first day at 291/2, after being 6/2.

6) Another day to try and bowl South Africa under 400.

None of these signs are encouraging. I don't see how India can save this test match, forget winning it, given these dearth of resources.

I predict South Africa to amass a score of 500+ and declare tomorrow evening, unless points 3 and 4 totally backfire against me, or the batsmen themselves gift their wickets away, something which is not likely to happen.

The key to the Indian batting will undoubtedly be the openers - Sehwag and Gambhir. Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar (Who's going to shepherd this batting line-up around, and I guess it's maybe the first time, in a long while, that he has had to play amidst people who are extremely raw to test cricket), Badrinath will have to shore up the batting, with atleast 2 of the 5 getting big hundreds and the rest chipping in with useful knocks and partnerships.

More to follow tomorrow.

Cheers,

V