Christmas comes early for Sehwag

No Indian team selection is ever uneventful, and that was certainly the case today when Niranjan Shah, the board secretary, announced the squad of 16 to play four Tests against an Australian team that have now won 14 on the bounce. Journalists quietly scribbled down the names till Shah got to the 14th one on the list. "Virender Sehwag," he said, and there were audible gasps all around the room. Sehwag hasn't played a Test since Cape Town last January, and wasn't even among the 24 probables that the board had announced before the Bangalore Test.

But a shoulder injury to Gautam Gambhir, his Delhi team-mate, has given him a scarcely believable chance at redemption. By a happy coincidence, the first Test is at the MCG, where he clattered 195 on Boxing Day in 2003. Whether he even makes it to the XI though is open to question. The four in the middle order cannot be displaced, and Wasim Jaffer has cemented a place at the top of the order. Sehwag will then have to fight it out with Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik for the last place, and after his brilliant 169 at Bangalore, Yuvraj must be the favourite.

Sehwag's domestic form has been dismal, and his selection is clearly based on past achievements. It's hard to argue with a record of 12 centuries in 52 Tests, but the key figure is his record in the last 10 Tests he played. He averaged 30 with just one century, on a pillow-like pitch at Gros Islet. In South Africa, he was in such poor touch that Karthik was sent up to open in the first innings at Newlands.

Given how the reservoir of goodwill has run dry, Sehwag must know that he won't get many more chances. How he capitalises on this could well dictate the future of a career that appeared destined for greatness when he scored 11 hundreds in his first 40 Tests.

The other selection from left field is Pankaj Singh, a pace bowler from Rajasthan. Tall and capable of moving the ball both ways, Singh has taken 26 wickets this Ranji season, and will push Ishant Sharma for a place in the starting line-up. With poor fitness costing Munaf Patel his place, VRV Singh and Ajit Agarkar must have fancied their chances, but instead, the selectors have gone for the fresh face. It's just a little worrying that the right-arm component of India's attack will have exactly two Tests between them when they confront one of the mist intimidating batting line-ups in the history of the game.

Comments

[bunty]

it may be further kept in mind that in potentially lee, tait, mitchell n clarke oz have perhaps the fastest attack since imran/wasim/waqar in early 90s and windies in 80s. even our seniors havent been exposed to such an attack so far and even though form (other than viru), experience and slowing oz wickets would help its a gamble whether age, reflexes, fitness will prove to be up to the test. hope utthappa, raina are not missed.

[bunty]

if viru is selected due to past success in oz than makes sense to play him at mcg where he got his big ton last time rather than make him wait (though i would be surprised if he scores runs this tour), in that case who sits out? i dont see why dravid alone should be asked to open and he hasnt had good form recently; both sachin n saurav have great experience as 1 day openers and have form; irfans bowling doesnt merit a place he lacks penetration for some time and its foolish to select a bowler on the basis of his batting alone, my guess is zaheer, rp and pankaj will bowl well in oz, vrv's extra yard of pace may be missed, kumble has lacked zip in past year but is captain, bhajji has toured oz twice without adjusting to the conditions, murali n powar may be missed, and who other than yuvi will be sharp in the field?

[Dileep]

How many years ago did you see the old Harbhajan? After the way Zaheer and RP bowled in England, I'd much rather repose faith in them and a wild card than in someone who has never been a factor overseas (and these days, rarely at home).

[avinash subramaniam]

why 3+1, dileep. you think our medium pacers stand a chance against the aussie plunderers? we saw what they did to the medium pacers that sri lanka threw at them. if anything at all, the aussies are not that great at playing spin. so, why not go with our strength, which happens to be spin? we need to rediscover the old harbajan. and keeping him out of the side for the first test is not going to help his confidence. which is only going to reduce whatever little chance we have of putting it across the arrogant aussies. as always, it's a mind game and it might be worthwhile to spring a suprise on the ausies by not going with the tried, tested but not proven formula of 3+1. totally agree with you on the pathan option.

[Dileep]

There is no way VVS or Dravid will sit out. They've proved themselves in Australia before. If Sehwag does play, it will be at the expense of Karthik and Yuvraj.
3+1 is certainly the way to go at the MCG. I'd pick Pathan though, since be brings so much to the batting.

[bunty]

runs may come from yuvi, jaffar, dhoni rather than the seniors -oz attack is far stronger than Pakistan; personally i would have liked to see uttappa and raina in the team but the recent scores by the seniors were difficult to ignore; pankaj singh should get a chance early on he is potentially the best fast medium bowler amongst the 5; murali kartik for pathan mayve been wiser; 3 fm +kumble would appear to be the attack at mcg; viru may be played at mcg-in that case who will sit out- vvs, yuvi or dravid?

[Vinay]

Indian selectors never fail to amaze. Theyhave enough exprienced players in the side with Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj these players apart from Dravid on their current form deserve their place. However with Dravid who has a decent record against Australia and because of his talent he deserves a chance.

But Shewag he is not in any kind of form his technic is weak and is know in the minds of all top class bowlers, he lacks footwork ma be he should attend Bollywod dance clases

There are new talents available who must be wandering waht they have to do to get in , there are batsmen like Suresh Reina, Mohammed Kaif, Rohit Sharma etc.

On the point of captaincy why Kumble he is negative too old and shoud giv youngsters a chance. Against Pakistan in the third test he declared too late the Spectators andthe comentators were all bored and confused.

[avinash subramaniam]

sure, tait an lee are 'frightening fast'. and another thing that's also a surety is the aussie tendency to talk up their bowlers before a test match. they did it to the sri lankans and they'll do it to us. mcgrath's already started shooting his mouth off with talk of four pacemen being the way to go against india. i think what we need to do is go in with 2 spinners in the boxing day test. not that anybody asked, but my eleven for the first test would be jaffer, kartik, dravid, sachin, sourav, laxman, dhoni, pathan, kumble, harbajan, zaheer khan. let's see how it pans out. and one more thing, the faster they come, the faster they can be dispatched. besides, s hussy said, a test is played over five days. all the openers need to do is give the first hour to the likes of tait, lee and johnson. hope kumble and company are reading this blog. :-)

[dsingh]

Sehwag is a huge surprise. Akash may have been hard done by this selection. But I am not convinced that Gambhir was truly injured. I think it was a polite way to tell GG to make the most of his chances he is offered. Like Yuvraj did.

Bowling does look terribly wobbly. I will be concerned with RP's lack of match fitness. I am also not sure if ZK will last the series. In the end, if India can keep the score line 1-2, I would take it.

Does anyone knows what happend to VVS? I hope he will be fit for the boxing day.

On another note, I came across this nice blog which officially kicks off the India - Australia war of words. I think it is a solid Indian retort to all the mirch-masala appearing in the Australian press. Looking forward to hearing the visitors to this site back the national team - no matter what happens to the team's fortunes when they travel Australia. I presume most of the respondents are Indian cricket fans. For me, the enemy is no longer across the border, it is truly down south.

http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=The-voices-of-spring.html&Itemid=&main_category=Free%20Hit&main_category=Free%20Hit

[v]

Oh! come of it Dileep, yes both lee and tait were fast but this NZ line-up except for Mathew Sinclair is a pathetic batting line-up and don't think Indians would look so foolish facing em' but my my they made Johnson look like Military medium, and from the looks of it the Aussies might be tempted to play an all pace attack, which might not be to the liking of Indian batsmen.

[Dileep]

Well, Ponting has never opened. Neither did Viv. Dravid is one of the great No.3s of all time, and if that's where he feels most at ease, so be it. technically, he and Sachin are probably best equipped to open, but I can't see either volunteering. I watched Lee and Tait last night, and they were frighteningly fast.

[Tarun Y]

I don't quite get why Rahul Dravid won't open. He opened a few times in 2006 (away in Pakistan and away in West Indies).
And by the look of it, he did quite well on some occasions. As the saying goes, "the difference between a no.3 and an opener is only one ball". For the greater part of this India-Pakistan series, he's been coming in relatively early (each time Dinesh Karthick has failed). So- why not? Yuvraj is tried,tested and failed as an opener. He's in the form of his life, and he should be allowed to play in his favoured slot (5,6 or 7).

[Dileep]

Am not a huge fan of makeshift openers, and given how scary Tait and Lee were at the WACA last night, I doubt if Dravid or anyone else will be queuing up to open. But if Yuvraj wants to play, he may well have to do the job at Karthik's expense.
As for the bowling, I think you have to go with 3-1 at the MCG. And given what a disaster the three leftie attack was in Pakistan [2006], I think Ishant Sharma will play along with Zaheer and either RP or Pathan.

[v]

Dravid gawked, when asked if he would open in Australia and I don't think it is fair to force it upon him, if yuvraj is ready to open then maybe give him a chance in the tour game and see how it goes otherwise Karthik deserves to be in the starting line up for the 1'st test.

[Tarun Y]

Without SreeSanth, the bowling composition worries me!
Do you think India may just play 2 spinners, 2 pacers the entire series? (SCG and Adelaide Oval - they'll probably play both Kumble and Bhajji).

Otherwise, what do you think of this line-up for the Boxing Day test?
1.Jaffer, 2.Dravid, 3.VVS, 4.Sachin, 5.Saurav, 6.Yuvraj, 7.Dhoni, 8.Irfan, 9.Kumble, 10.RPSingh, 11.Zaheer ?
[if they go two spinners - then Bhajji in for Irf]

I dont know - what do you think? Three medium-paced 'left-arm overs' worries me a little? Seems a bit 'same-ish'.

PS: and do you think Irfan's century has helped his cause in an Ashley Giles-esque way (ie, India batting down till no.8) ?