Indian teams announced

The Indian teams for the New Zealand series as well as the T20 World Cup were announced today by the selection committee who were meeting for the last time under Krish Srikkanth. The selectors also announced the 'A' squad to travel to New Zealand and it is quite interesting to see the names that have been included in the squads. Let us go through each one of the teams below:

• Test team against New Zealand at home - 
• VVS Laxman was in the limelight and everyone were looking at what the selectors thought would be - drop him or give him a chance to regain his form back. Yes, Laxman flopped during the tour Down Under but who did well (other than Virat Kohli) on that tour? If Rohit Sharma was given five chances in the ODI to improve his form, why not give Laxman another chance? 
• Rahane gets into the test squad on the basis of his good showing in first-class cricket - mostly an insurance for unexpected injuries to Sehwag or Gambhir. But, the question still remains - why are we forcing Rahane in the opening slot? Why not look at him in the middle-order? Kohli, Pujara and Rahane will be the fulcrum in the middle-order around which the Indian future will revolve. 
• Suresh Raina in test squad is as astonishing as the return of Piyush Chawla in place of Rahul Sharma - question here is whether Rahul was admonished for his doping offence in Pune. 
• Ishant Sharma's fitness has not been proved since the end of the Australian tour - do we have any insight further?
• T20 World Cup squad -
• Did Harbhajan Singh's county stint helped him to gain a slot in the T20 World Cup even though he did not play any T20s? 6 wickets in 4 first-class matches and 5 wickets in 2 List A matches does not give confidence to anyone! Does he replace Pragyan Ojha? Why? Ojha played just one match in the recent series and got hit in the nets - was the injury so bad to warrant his ouster?
• Yuvraj Singh has not played any cricket - forget first-class or club cricket (other than the warm-up matches at NCA). How was he selected? Is it based on emotion more than form?
• Rohit Sharma makes an appearance once again - on what basis? Based on the form that he displayed in the Sri Lankan ODIs? Come on, Srikkanth and team! You could have done better.
• Piyush Chawla once again to replace Rahul Sharma. Was his inclusion made as a good-luck charm? Remember that he has been a part of the T20 and Fifty-overs World Cup squads! There is no other reason for his presence.
• Balaji has done well in IPL and has matured with age. He is a good choice probably taken due to the slow tracks in Sri Lanka. But, the pace of Balaji as well as Pathan will be making the Indian team very similar in nature!
• 'A' team to New Zealand
• Abhinav Mukund did no do well on the West Indies tour but he has been retained - this is good for a change. Giving him a continuous reign under the Indian cap will do him good in the long run.
• Vinay Kumar and Rahul Sharma make it to the 'A' team from the senior team - must be depressing to receive such a 'reverse promotion'. They will do well to perform on this tour and make a comeback.
• Jayadev Unadkat is back! God knows where he goes between his appearances for the Indian cap (either 'A' or senior team)
• I am personally looking out for Ashok Menaria, Ambati Rayudu and Surya Kumar Yadav - they should grab these opportunities to stand out from the crowd.

India - SriLanka series - India win 4-1

India won the series, very comfortably at the end, against Sri Lanka by 4-1 thanks to some consistent efforts by its players like Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan.

Against the Lankans, if Gambhir doesnt get a big score, Kohli does. If Virat doesnt get going, Dhoni will surely come to the party. It was good to see the captain score in his earlier avatar of scoring runs very quickly with the help of some aggressive shots. Irfan Pathan has thrown his name into the selector's hat for possible options as an all-rounder. He holds the edge over the others like his brother Yusuf and Ravindra Jadeja because he bowls medium-pace (very effective outside the sub-continent). Thanks to Vinay Kumar's injury, Pathan walked into the squad but now he is the front-runner for the T20 World Cup. 

Dinda is no replacement for Praveen Kumar but he tried gamely. I would be surprised if he is persisted still. Rohit Sharma cannot blame the selectors or the management for not giving him enough options - he was chosen for all the five games and the skipper managed to rejig his lineup to give chances to both Rohit and Tiwary. After the series, it looks like Tiwary had the advantage going forward thanks to his exploits with the ball as well. Again, he has an advantage over the others since he bowls leg-spin (most of the part-timers like Sehwag, Raina, Rohit bowl off-spin).

Zaheer Khan played all the five matches which was quite surprising - will he maintain this run later in the season as well? Rahul Sharma and Ojha got couple of chances but could not cement their place ahead of Ashwin. The latter has gone down a rung, especially the levels he had reached after the World Cup. 

Overall, a good outing for the Indians to start the new season. Things will hopefully get better in the T20 World Cup as well as the test series against New Zealand.

Oz series - India finish a disappointing tour

The Indian team finished their long tour to Australia in a manner that reflected their performance throughout - disappointing. Despite the valiant chase that was put up by the batsmen against Sri Lanka at Hobart, the Sri Lankan win yesterday meant that the Indians had to take the next flight back.

Virat Kohli and Umesh Yadav were the best performers on either sides though Zaheer Khan did his best whenever he played. Other than these, the rest of the players faltered to deceive. Gautam Gambhir came into his own in spurts but did not achieve the consistency that would have earmarked him for further greatness.

Whether it is the senior batsmen in tests or the younger ones in ODIs, the performance was consistently depressing. The bowlers were marginally better and put the team in likely scenarios of winning only for the batsmen to fail (except the last match).

A lot more work needs to happen on the technique and temperament of the young batsmen but the focus will shift to the IPL very soon. This only highlights the focus of the Indian cricket and its administrators. The selection committee could have taken hard decisions by talking to the senior players and resting them for Asia Cup.

Other than Sehwag, the only drastic measure taken was the promotion of Kohli as the vice-captain (a sign to Gambhir that he was not right in his comments against the captain). Will the team management give the younger players (like Rahul Sharma) a chance against the minnows in Asia Cup is to be seen. If even this opportunity is not used for the betterment of the team, God only can help Indian cricket.