End of one-day road for legends?

The selectors will never come out and say it, but it's becoming more and more apparent that Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly may have joined VVS Laxman by the wayside in one-day cricket. Emboldened by the manner in which a young side outplayed all-comers in the T20 World Cup, they've decided to gamble on youth for the CB Series. So while the likes of Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman and Anil Kumble go home, youngsters like Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar and Rohit Sharma fly in. There's also place for Suresh Raina, whose international career stalled in 2006 after such a promising start

Raina has had a fine domestic season, and clearly has the quality to succeed at this level. The same goes for Chawla, though my initial impression of Kumar was that he lacks the pace to trouble international-class batsmen. Robin Uthappa and Sharma didn't do much of note in the Ranji season, and it remains to be seen how they'll cope against two of the best one-day sides in the world, Australia and Sri Lanka.

The pace bowling is as raw as can be. The three who played in Perth stay on, and will be joined by Sreesanth, whose eccentricities will certainly entertain Australian crowds. The one certainly is that it will be a far better fielding side than before, with old legs replaced by fresh and eager ones for whom diving around on the outfield isn't an unnatural act.

After the cull, one man remains, with more than 400 caps to his name. Such has been Sachin Tendulkar's form of late that it'll be a while before any selector even dares to think of putting him out to pasture.

Team: Mahendra Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar.

Comments

[bunty]

raina should do well in oz but is vulnerable to away swing n away spin-keep in mind hes a lefthander; should not be exposed to vaas/murali and should be 12th man vs sri lanka in tri series

[Harry]

The selectors have picked the right time to make changes, despite Laxman and Dravid coming into some form. India is known to have greater reserves of batting talent than bowling, and this needs to be properly introduced to the line-up or the team will be destabilised when the big four go all at once. Tendulkar is the most talented, aggressive and experienced of them, and is also in form, so he should rightly stay. As with Steve Waugh, their departure from test cricket need not be so soon as for ODIs.

[suresh]

There should be ranking system of of all Indian players. Just like they rank all international players on their ODI and Test rankings, they should rank all Indian players based on their games in Internation ODI/Test/Domestic matches. Once these players are ranked Top ranked 7 batsman, 6 bowleers, 2 wicket keepers and 3 all rounders must be picked. This will be transparent process and everybody will be aware of their rank in the rankings and what they need to do in order to ensure that they play next match.

Fielding also should be incorporated in this ranking, so that batsman who saves runs, takes diving catch gets bonus points to increase their rank.

[bunty]

the selectors are correct to opt at least in t20/odi for youth over experience with an eye to the future but the selections are poor and may discredit and undermine the policy. viru doesnt have a great odi record and is a poor fielder, yuvi hasnt adjusted to oz conditions, piyush chawla, uttappa (tho he has apparently scored runs in oz before with a youth or karnataka club side?)r sharma and m tiwari, have had poor form in recent ranji, while gambhir and raina are plausible choices if they dont make good this time selectors should ignore them for a while; badrinath (has scored runs in oz with india 'A'), kaif and yusuf pathan and perhaps parthiv (d karthik's all round fielding may however be a plausible advantage) and just maybe rajat bhatia must consider themselves unlucky while pujara and sidharth kaul may have more potential as test cricketers and be better off not exposed to pyjama cricket at this stage. sangwan, rahane, teja or tanmay srivastava wouldve been pure gambles at this stage though they must get a break sooner rather than later;
the timing was poor with the adelaide test around the corner and saurav, dravid, laxman (the latter two are reliable close in catchers, all 3 have scored runs on tour) ought to have been told in advance in private. they remain among the legends of the game

[Rahul]

Hmm, A rather sad state of affairs if you have to select Yuvraj who has desperately failed in all his innings over Dravid and Laxman who basically won us the match at Perth. I have the sinking feeling neither Dhoni nor the selectors appreciate the difference between T20 and 50 over one dayers. Nor do they understand the skill of Dravid, if they are trying to justify performances in the Ranji trophy as basis of selection over him. Just have one question: when Lee and Clark have had us for lunch, will someone also think of a fresh new selection panel. Seems to me, that we need that well before the 2011 world cup.

[Homer]

Since when did bowling matter in an ODI anyways - it is the batting that people come to watch.

And bowling wise, India has plenty of part time bowlers who can chip in that odd over or two - and plenty of variety too.

I believe that we are seeing a paradigm shift in the way we approach our cricket with power hitting being the order of the day.

And about time too.

[Jim]

The selectors got their timing totally wrong. They had already failed with this experiment in the home series against Australia.
This team doesn't have enough experience or skill to win a series in Australia. Surviving 50 overs is not an easy job, in T20 the innings would be over in a flash. But the 50 over version requires more skill.
This team will fail miserably on pitches which offer some assistance to the bowlers.

Ganguly is in prime form. He would have been a treat to watch. So is Dravid. They should have been given a graceful exit. These selectors are real clowns this not the way to treat the greatest cricketers India has ever produced.

[Tarun Y]

I just want to see Uthappa open! I loved his 34 vs Australia in the T20 semi-final. Walking down the pitch and nonchalantly biffing Stuart Clarke and Mitchell Johnson.
Makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!!
I think he's wasted at 6 or 7.

[v]

I would have preferred having dravid in the side, for Gambhir ain't cut out to come in at number 3.

[Dsingh]

It is indeed sad to see a fairy tale such as Dada's come to end. He has been nothing short of revelation since his return from a forced exile. But if one looks objectively, the decsion makes sense.Wether the team succeeds or fails from here, it is time to look beyond Dada.
Leaving Dravid is though, in my view, a harsher decision. I always thought that, of the three ageing stars, Dravid appeared to be one destined for a prolonged career. It is hard to imagine what is going on between him and the selectors. My guess is that some of it has been his own doing. Ever since the England trip he has looked more lost, more shy and more self-abosrbed. His image is hardly of a man who has accomplished a good twenty thousand international runs.
I do hope that they get a proper farewell sometime when India plays back home.
On anther note, it is interesting to see that all those team members who lost their shine and value during the terrible tenure of Guru Greg have come back and made an impact. So I hope that Rainas of the world will prove their worth this time around.