Drama in Selection meeting !!

It is reliably learnt that Kiran More, VB Chandrashekar plus Rahul and Chappell duo opposed the inclusion of Sourav in the test team, during the selection committee meeting. Out of the 5 with voting rights, Pranab Roy (facing strong flak from Kolkattans and Bengali press with even his house targeted), Gopal Sharma (a light weight, with negligible cricketing record at International level) and Yashpal Sharma (typical fence sitter) decided that they will cast their dice with Sourav and hence More and VB had to taste defeat. Why did the above 3 did this even though they know pretty well that it is not good for Indian team's morale. Well !! they played it safe is my guess. With board elections round the corner, no one is sure whether the sun will rise in EAST or WEST - whether it will be Kolkatta or Mumbai calling the shots. So, they simply played it safe is my guess.

I am surprised that More not only lost the plot here with Dada selection but lost it in rest of the selection too. Zaheer Khan, the man who dismissed Dada twice for a duck recently (in Indian patta wickets, that is some achievement) finds himself in the cold and may have to be content playing matches in odd places like Ananthapur and Tirunelveli. How did More was not able to get in Zaheer and how Gopal Sharma of all people, able to get in RP Singh ‘in’? VB had little chance of getting in KKD Karthik against the belligerent Dhoni but I am not sure whether he even tried. KKD had hardly done anything wrong but if you sift through the scorecards, he was the only failure during Zim with the bat. KKD should have seen this coming especially after that 140+ knock of Dhoni against Pak a few months back. He should have knocked off atleast couple of 50s but with the way Dhoni murdered SL attack, it became almost impossible to exclude him.

I hate discussing the team selection in these narrow regional lines but it is impossible not to discuss it because that is the way these things are done in India and we need to get the inside track into how the system works.

Another man to miss out is Balaji and strangely he is not there in the TN team too for the 1^st Ranji game. With VB being so subdued and Balaji having limited opportunities to show his talent, the writing was on the wall.

Now, let us examine how the quota system played out in the BP XI selection. Venu became the captain and VB picked Sriram (how many more chances he will get?), it was disappointing to see that none of the young guns were to be tried in batting department. More went out of the way to include Munaf Patel, only to be rebuffed by the local association, which made him play the Ranji game. It is another matter that he cranked a 78 with 4 6s and became a top scorer !! Hope he tests Dada and keeps him shape for the Madras test !!!

Finally the million $ question, with Dada in the 14, will he be in the 11 ? Yes. It is very unlikely that having come this far, the selectors will allow Dada to be sitting in pavilion. So, he will play for sure. Question is – can he dominate Murali and Vaas ? Over the years, I have watched Dada clean out only left arm spinners but typically suspect against good off spin. My guess is that Sri Lanka will come back with vengeance and Murali is quoted to have said that he is now – not to be bothered with the typical 10 over spell of ODI and can bowl (chuck??) all he wants. He will be handful to handle at Madras for sure. The Indian top order – better watch out !!