Is the chairman of selectors being too partial to his state players?
Krishnamachari Srikkanth is surely being too partial to his home state players. The Indian squad for the tour of New Zealand which is going to start late this February was announced. And I wonder from where did Dinesh Kaarthick fell into the squad instead of Ajinkya Rahane who has done far more better than him ? Is it just because Kaarthick is from the same state(Tamil Nadu) as Srikkanth ? Also Lakshmipathy Balaji was given a place in the squad. He failed to impress during the series in Sri Lanka. Though given the seaming conditions in New Zealand, it is understandable why he was in the squad. And of course, that was just one bad game for him. Test squad: ODI Squad: Twenty20 squad: Over to you guys for your selection opinions.
It was good to see young Mumbai Dhawal Kulkarni in the test squad. I would have in any case picked him ahead of Balaji. Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel are back in the squad as well, though I wonder if the team needs them given the fact that the Indians did well even when both of them were not there. What really annoyed me the most was seeing Rohit back in the T20 squad. I still believe that he first need to make something in the one day matches and that too at a good speed before playing T20 cricket.
Even the previous chairman - Dilip Vengsarkar used to be a bit partial to his state team players. It was during that period that Rohit Sharma made his place into the team. He did reasonably well during that period. But he looks a bit off colour right now.
Anyway, the past is over and we now need to look at the present team selection for all three formats of the game going to be played in New Zealand :
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Kaarthick, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Murali Vijay.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Dinesh Kaarthick, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Dinesh Kaarthick, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja.
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February 15, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Balaji had an excellent domestic season as did Dhawal and hence they were picked. Karthik is in the squad as a back-up wicketkeeper, and is arguably the best keeper-batsman India has after Dhoni. Don't forget he scored an incredible 150+ off 110 odd balls when he was really needed by South Zone. Regionalism probably plays a role, but it has diminished slightly otherwise we would not have as strong a team as we do now.
February 15, 2009 at 2:24 PM
well I wouldn't have been surprised even if Dravid was used as a backup keeper. Though agreed that Karthik is the second best keeper. In any case, he might be the right choice as a backup for ODIs and T20.
Also, I can understand why Balaji was picked up as I had mentioned about the seaming conditions in NZ.
In my opinion, this series will tell us whether the selections were right or wrong. And yes, nobody can stop this regionalism. We saw Vengsarkar doing it. So it's nothing new.
February 15, 2009 at 2:26 PM
But what about Vijay ? A guy like Pujara or even Jaffer would have been far more better choice. Isn't it ?
February 19, 2009 at 8:14 AM
Selecting Jaffer would be going backwards.Pujara is not an opener.
Vijay was probably as early selection for Aus series. But he performed decently.
February 20, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Anonymous,
Other than India's tour of England in 2007, Kartik never played well as an opener. Maybe you could be right when you said that giving Jaffer his cap back would be going backwards, but then he's playing well. Selectors just can't ignore him. He has batted well in the Ranji matches and led his side to their 38th victory.
Perhaps the only thing that got Kartik in the team was his wicket-keeping.
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