India's Oneday Selection Needs a Rethink

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03/04/2015 Blogs: V Ramnarayan: India's oneday selection needs a rethink | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

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SAMIR CHOPRA V Ramnarayan An offspinner who represented Hyderabad and South HASSAN CHEEMA Zone in the 1970s, V Ramnarayan is a columnist / KARTIKEYA DATE blogger on cricket and other subjects. He teaches at the Asian College of Journalism and edits Sruti, a GUEST SPOT leading Indian monthly on the performing arts. His APRIL 2, 2015 works include histories of Tamil Nadu cricket and the NICHOLAS HOGG Madras Cricket Club, and biographies. Third Man, India's oneday selection needs a Recollections from a Life in Cricket, published by JON HOTTEN rethink Westland, is his latest book. RUSSELL JACKSON V Ramnarayan All articles by this writer MICHAEL JEH Tweet 10 | Like 102 | 31 COMMENTS SANKARAN KRISHNA The Cordon on Twitter JANAKA MALWATTA Tweets from a list by ESPNcricinfo

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A DhawanRahane opening combination would have been worth trying in the World Cup, RECENT POSTS http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/857957.html 1/6 03/04/2015 Blogs: V Ramnarayan: India's oneday selection needs a rethink | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

given Rohit Sharma's unpredictability at the top © AFP India's oneday selection needs a rethink

Enlarge Tahir, Ashwin and Vettori buck World Cup trend

Where have all the stylists gone? Nothing succeeds like success, we know. Sometimes nothing misleads like success. India's dream run into the last four of the World Cup served to mask Whatever happened to sportsmanship? a number of grey areas in the team's lineup. A series of successes meant What India's spinners are doing wrong that the gifted Rohit Sharma could continue to get away with soft dismissals, as has been his wont all along. We kept waiting for him to put his head down All Posts » and start contributing to the team's cause in a measure matching his ability. That was not to be, and India did not change their opening pair through the MOST READ MOST COMMENTED tournament.

In his time, golden boy Mark Waugh had an extended run in the Australian team, despite a long bad patch. Form is temporary, class is permanent, the experts like to say though the sentiment is rarely shared by the honestto goodness workmen of cricket that these stylists keep out. Waugh did prove his class, but it has been a long, agonising wait for Rohit to explode on to the big stage; and I am not making light of his superhuman feats when there has been less at stake.

Someone like Murali Vijay must wonder at the unfairness of it all. After his sterling displays on the England and Australia tours, he should have been an automatic choice for the World Cup, especially as he has the flexibility and skills for all three formats of the game.

The refusal of the team management to try Ajinkya Rahane out as Shikhar Dhawan's opening partner was inexplicable, too. Not that Dhawan himself has done enough to cement his place strongly enough.

Suresh Raina is the other enigma of the team; perhaps not so much an enigma as someone unable to make the technical adjustments to translate his immense talents and selflessness into capacity to deliver against the fast, furious and shortpitched. His brilliant fielding and his reasonable batting form in the early rounds made him a fixture in the side, but in hindsight, retaining http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/857957.html 2/6 03/04/2015 Blogs: V Ramnarayan: India's oneday selection needs a rethink | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo him for the semifinal was surely another selection lapse? Judging by the way he got out to a relatively innocuous delivery, he seemed to succumb to the pressure of selfdoubt, despite all his hard work to learn to play the short ball better.

Ravindra Jadeja was another regular in the XI who did not really pull his weight as an allrounder, though it must also be said that his preWorld Cup form when he was fit had not been much to write home about for a while. Here is another player who has not lived up to his promise, except in the fielding department, but has enjoyed the selectors' confidence for far too long. Unfortunately, his prospective replacement in the Indian squad was a rookie leftarm spinner picked on the strength of fourover spells in the IPL.

Can there be more oneday tournaments in India, so that T20 does not become the main provider of raw material?

India (and R Ashwin) missed another chance to develop Ashwin as the allrounder he can be. Though Ashwin bowled beautifully in an oldfashioned, disciplined style, his batting disappointed. Here's a lowerorder batsman of unusual merit, with plenty of time to play and an impressive international record, who batted too low in the order, and rarely made an impression in the World Cup. India could have benefited by promoting him ahead of Jadeja, and demanding greater responsibility from him.

The consistently good showing by the team up to the knockout stage also meant that it carried a few nonplaying tourists. The choice of the inexperienced Axar Patel as reserve spinner, the injury to Bhuvneshwar Kumar (why did he continue as a member of the team despite it?), and Stuart Binny's lack of opportunity were symptoms of clouded thinking or lack of application by the selectors.

Test cricket is no doubt India's major problem area, and it will need much patient rebuilding before India can dream of regaining the No. 1 spot. While the recent allround improvement in the pace bowling is an encouraging sign, spin and batting remain worrisome. The team needs to devise appropriate short and longterm strategies to improve in these areas. http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/857957.html 3/6 03/04/2015 Blogs: V Ramnarayan: India's oneday selection needs a rethink | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo In the meantime, they should try and enhance their chances of success in the shorter formats, at which they already are pretty good. As in Test cricket, team selection will play a key role. While most players select themselves, it is the two or three problem choices that tend to let India down when the heat is turned on by the top opponents. These players may not win a popular vote, but they tend to enjoy the confidence of the team management or captain for reasons no doubt perfectly valid in the judgement of those men.

Is the appointment of an independent selection panel of proven limitedovers specialists who watch domestic oneday matches, and broadbasing the scope of the talent search, the way forward? Can there be more oneday tournaments in India, so that T20 does not become the main provider of raw material? Should the captain be taken out of the selection process, not because he may be a biased participant in it, but because he does not get to watch players other than those he encounters as teammates and opponents? Surely that elusive allrounder is lurking around the corner, if only we would extend our gaze beyond the obvious.

For India to field the best oneday combination available, cold reason must prevail over sentimentality. Replacements have to be found for otherwise consistent players who tend to fail at crucial junctures owing to weaknesses technical or temperamental against the best teams or on the biggest occasions. Otherwise, for all the promise India hold, they may continue to succeed only at home.

V Ramnarayan bowled offspin for Hyderabad and South Zone in the 1970s. His latest book is Third Man, Recollections from a Life in Cricket Feeds: V Ramnarayan

Keywords: Selection

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+ Add comments Login Register to post comments Login Posted by GURURAJKASHYAP on (April 3, 2015, 11:17 GMT) I entirely agree with the views expressed by veteran of spinner. Not best of the players were selected for the world cup. As rightly pointed out, players who had potential did not perform to the expectation and never were they consistent and dependable. The final XI for the semi http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/857957.html 4/6 03/04/2015 Blogs: V Ramnarayan: India's oneday selection needs a rethink | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo final against Australia was perhaps the last straw as the team management never realised that two or three players did not deserve their places. I am talking about Raina and Jadeja, Their places should have been taken by either Rayudu or Binny or Patel, any two of them. Dhoni's captaincy was also at its lowest ebb in the match which gave Australia to pile up a huge total. It has been the bane of Indian cricket that emotion and attachment rule the selection of the players. I have little hope that India will emerge as a strong cricketing nation.

Posted by on (April 3, 2015, 11:13 GMT) there are only 12 points which are explicit here... Rohit didn't perform against the big guys and jadeja is not a quality all rounder (batting/bowling all rounder, god knows).... we needed Ashwin up the order but I think sending him ahead of jadeja wouldn't have made much difference to the final results... raina had a quality tournament throughout and it would be unfair to blame him for the loss... dhawan hasn't done enough to cement a place really?! I think he s probably the most prolific odi opener in Odis over the last 2 yrs.... n then the bowlers were virtually spotless till the semis ... on the whole we have a great team which can be even better with guys like yuvraj, ishant, gambhir etc.

Posted by engi45 on (April 3, 2015, 10:19 GMT) i think india can nevr become test no 1 indians player or fans dont like test cricket and have no interest thats why players also dont like to give importance to test cricket. Indians can win future world cup but never willl become test no1. Nobody is complaining also.

Posted by Coolcapricorn on (April 3, 2015, 9:29 GMT) Our batsmen simply need to be more consistent like Sangakkara or Steven Smith no point scoring a good century interspersed amongst a run of very low scores. Our 4th or 5th bowlers are a real problem as we saw in the semifinal of the WC. If you have someone as weak as Jadeja coming on after the first 10 overs, it simply allows the opposition to rebuild their innings without taking any risks even if they may have lost an early wicket or two. The opposition are allowed to lay down a platform for a big score & this is where the match effectively gets lost by us!

Posted by Rajeshj on (April 3, 2015, 8:44 GMT) I think its a reasonable article given the fact that it was written with a fair amount of honesty.. Consistency is essential with the top 4 batsmen and it one area where we went wrong at times.. Kohli was miserable with the bat.. Rohit and Dhawan scored a century each before semis, but failed to make a bigger impact in semi final.. We were able to come this far was mainly due to the fact that we played our league matches in flat tracks with lesser bounce.. And in the semis, we crumbled to high quality pace of the Aussies.. The techniques of Dhawan, Kohli, Rohit, Dhoni etc. on fast, pacy tracks are not too great.. Their techniques on swinging conditions are even miserable.. We need to groom a new team who can bat in all conditions and not just flat tracks.. Dhoni played his preferred guys in World cup.. Jadeja never deserved to be in team, but still lucky to play all.. same with limited talent of Mohit sharma.. No wonder we lost in semis..

Posted by Coolcapricorn on (April 3, 2015, 8:34 GMT) Our batsmen simply need to be more consistent like Sangakkara or Steven Smith no point scoring a good century interspersed amongst a run of very low scores. Our 4th or 5th bowlers are a real problem as we saw in the semifinal of the WC. If you have someone as weak as Jadeja coming on after the first 10 overs, it simply allows the opposition to rebuild their innings without taking any risks even if they may have lost an early wicket or two. The opposition are allowed to lay down a platform for a big score & this is where the match effectively gets lost by us!

Posted by Malapropism on (April 3, 2015, 8:04 GMT) OK why critical of a unit which performed well. Murli in place of Rohit is laughable. http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/857957.html 5/6 03/04/2015 Blogs: V Ramnarayan: India's oneday selection needs a rethink | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

Posted by cheguramana on (April 3, 2015, 7:24 GMT) I think a very mature and balanced commentary on the Indian team. No doubt, some of the players enjoy the backing of the captain. Again, the intention is not to ascribe malicious intent to Dhoni, but we have to understand that it is his nature / style of captaincy. If something appears to work, he is loth to make changes in the team. Thats where the coach/ team director / selection panel seniors need to step up to him and coach the captain into a more productive captaincy style. If we want to win the WC in 2019, its not too early to start planning. There is only one aspect of the Indian team that is world class : fielding. Pace bowlers bench strength needs to be better; ditto for spinners; allrounders there are too few; batting all the talent in the world is there its the right selection alone thats needed. Hope BCCI gets cracking. Abt Tests : is the BCCI even serious abt that format ? They need to make up their minds !!

Posted by Vishal_07 on (April 3, 2015, 6:34 GMT) I don't think Indian fans have much to complain about team's WC performance. Not sure if writer is targeting Test or ODI, as they are completely separate. I don't think Raina played that bad in the semis, considering how poorly Rahane played and so did Kohli. Jadeja, however, did play poorly and I agree with the writer here. He is neither here nor there, another Binny kind of player, good in the subcontinent but not much of use outside.

Posted by piyo_thanda_jiyo_thanda on (April 3, 2015, 6:11 GMT) Excellent article. As I posted before the world cup also, India's biggest problem is the batting. Batsmen are simply hyped up too much and made to appear as supermen. We just do not have any good quality hitters any more Dhoni is just a pale shadow of his past self and Raina is too inconsistent. Less we talk about batting prowess of Rohit Sharma, the better. Dhawan is quite inconsistent too, although I hope this WC would have done his confidence good. Murli Vijay needs to be tried out for sure. Manoj Tiwari, Yusuf Pathan, Uthappa etc. need to be given chances to develop as power hitters. Aus, SA, NZ, WI etc. have simply awesome batsmen and power hitters and our team will stand no chance against them in major tournaments unless we made selections based on merit and not past performances.

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