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sports BY selecting a youthful team, the BCCI has given a strong message about the change ahead. The predominantly young team for the one-day series tour (five ODIs and one T20 match) of Sri Lanka, starting on July 21, is a clear signal from the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) selectors that time has come to give thrust to youth, instead of relying on non-performing seniors. Though the team led by M.S. Dhoni will have veterans like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan, the selectors’ decision not to consider the Pathan brothers, Irfan and Yousuf, and Ravinder Jadeja, was with an eye on the future. The Pathans had done nothing spectacular in the recent months to merit a recall to the national team. Ditto the case of Jadeja, who was also part of the Asia Cup team.
Selection committee chairman K. Srikkanth was quite effusive about Sachin’s decision to prolong his career. “Tendulkar had requested time away from the game to extend his career. He is spacing it out very well…picking only those series that he wants to play.” Whether the BCCI would have allowed lesser mortals, however talented they may be, this kind of chance, is a moot point. By this yardstick, Harbhajan Singh deserved a recall. Sure, the crafty spinner has been in a lean form for quite some time, and his lack of wickets in the IPL, despite being the captain of Mumbai Indians, did not aid his cause. Still, considering his past exploits for the national team, he should have been given another chance. Had Yuvraj Singh been fit, he would have been a certainty for the tour. The selectors are still keen to include him for the T20 World Cup in Lanka, if he’s fit by then. The Sri Lanka tour will be the Indian team’s first outing after the Asia Cup. Sehwag and Zaheer had missed the Asia Cup for fitness reasons, though both played the IPL a month later! But both are class acts, and the selectors just cannot ignore them. Gambhir has been on a high, after his consistent performance in the IPL. He had led the Kolkata Knight Riders to the title, for the first time. Gambhir’s soaring status may discomfit Dhoni, as he had tamed Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in their own den, to wrest the IPL title. Of late, there have been voices calling for Dhoni’s ouster, and the elevation of Gambhir as the captain. Gambhir’s ego took a terrible knocking when he was ousted as the vice-captain at Dhoni’s behest and Virat Kohli was elevated as the deputy. So Gambhir will also try to prove more than a point with a good show in Lanka. But Dhoni is a cool and collected player, who keeps his counsel, and chooses to speak through his performances. The Lanka tour will be an apt platform for Dhoni to silence his detractors, and reaffirm his status as captain non-parallel. Virat Kohli continues to be the vice-captain while young players like Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwari, R. Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Pragyan Ozja, Umesh Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane and Ashok Dinda have been picked keeping the future nucleus of the team in mind. Rahane has been rewarded for his eye-catching display with the bat in the IPL, to emerge as the fourth best run-getter, with 560 runs. The tour will help India familiarise with the conditions before they go back to the island country to play in the T20 World Cup.
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Sachin Tendulkar has always been in a privileged position to pick-and-choose his tours.
