Why is Munaf not in the team?

That is a baffling question for which there seems to be no answer. The 10 wickets haul in the practice match, the manner of dismissals (clean bowled), the clean up of the tail twice over - all pointed addressing a tradional Indian weakness - dismissing lower order especially in patta wickets. (Remember the Gillespies, who had thwarted a 100 Indian strong positions, over and over all these years). By all accounts, the selectorial huddle began around 320 PM and by that time Munaf had already proved to be better than VRV but he had not yet done the tail demolition. But, by the time of announcement - 5 pm, the 1st day play was over and More could have easily pencilled in Munaf ahead of VRV since by then, Munaf had cleaned up 5.
So, who decided on VRV? from all accounts, GC endorsed VRV's name on the basis of familiarity. Perhaps he was not that familiar with Munaf and the 5 wise men, who are tongue tied at best- hardly could have argued in favor of Munaf.
As much as I like the professionalism of GC, I am slowly starting to be cautious about his undue weightage in these matters. Part of the problem is because, More and co. is too flabbergasted to counter - the 100s of print outs, computer graphics (which Ramki supplies to GC), long vision speeches...and I still believe that GC has the best of intentions ( I am with him on SG exclusion since it was getting the team no where but I still feel SG is not a bad option to have especially as spare ODI opener ahead of GG) but do not like the sub-servience of the 5 wise men. Gone are the days of brilliance shown by the Lala Amarnaths and Vijay Merchants, who picked the side based on hunches and formed strategies on pitches. These days, there is really one decision maker and although I do not question his intention, I am not convinced that the 5 wise men should bow before him all the time because of their inadequacies.
I just wanted to add one more recent instance in such a selection. Most of the cricket followers felt that Zaheer Khan needs a look in for the Pak tour, on the basis of his Ranji performance. In the final analysis, he ended up with so so figures and frankly squandered a good chance, although the wickets are of no great help in Pak (but so was the case for Mohmd. Asif and Irfan Pathan too but they managed to pick up wickets). May be...may be, some one has some thing in VRV that we are not privy to and which is not there in Munaf. I hope so..
..now, it is over to Nagpur - Poms must be wondering what has hit them. With Tresco. flying back and injury problems, indifferent batting form aplenty, they are on the back foot but don't count them out..not yet. Freddie and co. is far too professional to go down so cheaply. I still feel India has the edge but much depends on how Bhajji is going to bowl after a long layoff.

Is this the end of the road for Dada?

The Indian team announced for Nagpur test did not have SG today. It was almost expected but there was some hope especially after Yuvaraj went down and now it looks almost certain that Dada's innings at International stage has come to an end. Unless, India falls flat and is left so badly wounded by England (or the coming series'), it looks unlikely that SG will get another look.
In today's practice match, Munaf did his part, getting a 5fer and he has been on fire, not only in this match but thro' the Ranji season. He has even improved his batting but for some reason, VRV (who incidentally got thrashed today) got the nod ahead but in the end analysis it may not matter since neither of them will play in the final XI.
The other interesting move is to go with Piyush. Here is India's great, great hope of the coming years. I was really impressed by his bowling after watching the under-19 WC but the levels of cricket at International level is different and many a performer has not done graduation well. Piyush has to keep his head and mature quickly. For all you know, we have unearthed the next superstar.
Nagpur is expected to be a traditional dust bowl and the 5 batting slots will perhaps go to VS, WJ, VVS, SRT, RD and 5 bowlers with 3 spinners. This will mean that neither MK nor SR will get a look in. England seems to have its hands full with indifferent batting at the top, injury worries, a pace heavy attack that is unlikely to find any assistance in the puff coming off Vidhaba pitch. All in all, India seems to have played its cards well.

After a while...

A lot has happened since the last post. India had lost the test series but came back strong in the ODIs. I was in India watching the Dhoni demolition and the exceptional batting of Yuvi. Here is my final summary :

• India is still very much a batting team and I would have been happy, if even one win had come bowling 2nd but that did not happen.
• As much as I am delighted to see the scoring rates of Dhoni and Yuvi in several matches..it was needed only because Dravid was not fluent a couple of times and Kaif was a total failure with the bat.
• Sachin is still India's best bet for the 5th bowling spot.
• Sreesanth is still below par (inspite of what media says) and bowled several 'hit me' balls between an odd good one and several no balls and wides.
• ZK is done and so is AA
  
• Time to groom Raina for tests and better challenges in ODIs.
  
• Time to get in Chawla too (I watched the under 19 matches) for the matches against England. Chawla is going to be the next 'big thing' in Indian cricket. The lad is a gift of God to Indian cricket. Hope he keeps his head and the right gromming happens.
  

In general, I was happy about the ODI series but other than the improved performance of Yuvaraj, India did not discover any new talent. I wish that there were more opportunities for Raina or wish that GG had not wasted so many chances but again..in summary,,,India did not do bad especially after the test defeat.
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I also wanted to post my impressions about the first hand experience of watching Ranji ODI series at Hyd. Here it is...
I was back in Hyd for a visit (from US), after years of gap and decided to watch the Ranji - South zone ODI series (Subbiah Pillay Trophy), when I got sometime. The prime reasons were : -
1) There was enough talent on display
2) The madness associated with international matches is not there

When I reached Gymkhana grounds on day1 for the TN-Kerala tie, my heart sank. The ground is a complete wreck now. Even at the best of times, the ground was not known for its infrastructure but everything had a run down look (with perhaps, Hyd cricket asscn. spending money on the new Uppal stadium and not bothering with the old gympkhana).

There were a handful of spectators outside the chained fence and I managed to get a plastic chair next to the scorers in the pavilion (?). The only other spectator in the pavilion was sitting next to me .. the BCCI match referee (not sure who it was but he was in a safari suite and ate lunch with the umpires later..and hence the guess) and a sleeping dog on the floor. My ring side view was next to the kerala players seats and a dirty old shamiana rag seperated the Kerala players from the TN players. The gymkhana ground itself is not worth describing - with a shabby, torn clothline making the sight screen and with cows grassing leisurely in the adjoining ground, I am not sure how the players could motivate themselves to play. The so called pavillion had nothing by way anything worth describing except some rag tag chairs and a couple of fans, not 'on'. Only one score board was in operation and it had nothing but total and overs. Badani had to repeatedly ask the TN players 'en score enna?' (what is my score?).

TN was a more technologically advanced team - relatively speaking. They had placed a camcorder atop a giant stand and a feed was taken to a TV and a laptop. Lakshmi (as TN Captain Badri called the TN laptop guy) was in charge of recording and providing the players instant feedback. The lingua franca from the TN side was Tamil and most of the players were there since TN was batting first, when I was watching. Lakshmi was sitting next to the portly figure of TN manager Bharat Arun (he was portly even when he played the odd India match in the yester years).

Coming to the match itself..Kerala had a few useful medium pacers but they were no match for the Badanis, Badrinaths and Vidyuts. I really enjoyed Badani's delightful knock as he put together a glorious, unbeaten knock. KKD Karthick was the cheer leader for the TN team - with shouts like - 'odura ..odura..' (run, run...exhorting Vidyut to turn a single to a two or something like that)...his language was more respectful when he spoke to Badani and Badri...
It was a strange sight to see Sadagopan Ramesh (who is perhaps known to every TN player) play in the opposition. When Kerala batted, I could hear the excited shouts from Kerala side..Jaggi run..run...but when it came Ramesh.,.. it was a more respectful Ramesh Bhai...good shot.....Ramesh, unfortunately got run out and Kerala chase was never 'on'.

Other tit bits..
1) Badani is pretty fluent in Tamil
2) Badani was very keen to watch h/ls immediately after his batting..(and almost skipped lunch because he watched it all during the lunch time)..
3) Arun hardly spoke a word to TN players but the team seemed to be in auto pilot mode.
4) Badri has quietly slipped into the skipper role nicely and is commanding respect due to his consistent batting.
5) TN team is a well oiled machine and the players mingled freely...pulled each others legs often..joked enough and seemed to be a happy go lucky bunch.
6) Ramesh is perhaps still angry with the way TN management (VB in particular) has treated him and a had a few harsh words in one of the Tamil magazines.

Here is my take - after watching this match in full..
1) There is a lot of gap between the levels of facilities available for an international match and the domestic match. I am not sure why the gap should be so much wide ( I am not expecting a live telecast or a 20000 people watching) but basic things should be there. Afterall, it is the next level to the International matches. Several India hopefuls and ex-Indian players are playing..like KKD, Badani, Ramesh, ...and the risk of injury or exhausition is there. The gymkhana, in my opinion is not even fit for hosting a school match - leave alone, India's number 3 domestic tournament(after challenger and Deodhar)...
2) There was no one from HCA or any authority worth speaking in the ground. A few groundsman, a tired score keeper (manual board and often he was searching for the numbers) and a couple of other lower rung guys were only there...
3) Anyone could approach the players since there was absolutely no protection of any form. You could hear them talk in close proximity ( I did not mind that) but this could have been mis used.
4) The pitches, ground conditions, promotion of the whole game left a lot to be desired..
5) All the BCCI talk about new, improved schemes..is all only talk and nothing has changed in the ground...
6) If you hv played for India once, .. I am not sure..how can you stoop to play in such pitiable conditions later...hats off to KKD, Badani, Ramesh.....for taking it all sportingly and still go ahead as if nothing has happened.
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I watched a few more matches in the tournament but not its full length and TN batting eventually failed when it mattered most (in the last match against Karnataka..who took the troply)...