Foolhardiness

I cannot believe this is the same Indian side which stirred my heart sixmonths ago. The quality of players has not worsened dramatically: it is poorselection and batting positions that seriously need a look in. More of it andthe bottom will come apart.

Even a Maharaja in his pomp would turn a blind eye to playing fourmedium-pacers in Indian conditions. But not this Indian team.

Excessive use of medium-pacers on Indian turfs; an obese, overflowing middleorder whose girth seeks its own space and governance and the serial quarrel onIrfan Pathan at number three which the team picks up with the nation every timeit takes the field -- the Indians are only refining their finesse to shootthemselves in the foot.

We all know the western part has a reddish soil. Look to it, in cricketingparlance means a ticket to party for spinners at the start and end of a cricketseason. Yet we dispensed with Ramesh Powar and picked up four medium-pacers. Ican understand if you have pacers of 140k speed but that is not the case.

Just picking up right and left-arm bowlers does not mean variety. There wastoo much of sameness. All you end up doing is under-bowl a few of them and turnto your Sehwags and Yuvrajs. Thirteen overs between them is an admission thatthe team woke up to the reality late in the game. Sometimes wisdom comes to uswhen it can no longer do any good.

Or take the case of our packed middle order. Besides the ones who played,Dinesh Mongia and Mohammad Kaif were resting on the bench. Compare this with theoptions we have at the top of the order. God forbids but if some unfortunateinjury was to happen to Sehwag or Sachin Tendulkar, we don't have an option togive the team a thrust in the Power Plays. Who are the alternatives we havethought of for such an eventuality?

It can no longer be postponed. The Indians must now get an absolute fair ideaof 15 they are going to pick for the World Cup. In my squad, Gautam Gambhirwould be a must. You can't sideline players who can take a good helping forthemselves in Power Plays. It is an area where India doesn't seem to take heavytoll of bowlers.

Even in Ahmedabad on Thursday, they needed to promote Yuvraj to make the mostof field restrictions. Or even Suresh Raina who needs to be given a stage toestablish himself as a top-order left-hand bat rather than allow him to languishat number seven.

All this when you keep thrusting Pathan at number three. Bull-headedness isone thing but carrying on in the same vein is foolhardiness. They are flying inthe face of reason. I believe the time has come for chairman of selectors DilipVengsarkar to impose his will early on in his stint and be hands-on when theplaying eleven is being selected or batting order is penciled down. Otherwisethe ship, already in stormy waters, is bound to run into rocks.

It was not a 220-run kind of pitch. Even this total was possible due toMahendra Singh Dhoni's sensible batting. As I said, there are too many men inqueue in the middle order while at the top it seems there are not enough handsto pick up the riches of Power Plays.

So all we are left with are pieces to pick. Around the same time last year,we staged a revival. We are now again at the starting blocks and it is not agood feeling. Sometimes acknowledging your erroneous ways is the first step toredemption. Only if we could make them see reason.

For the West Indies, the Indian attack was meat and drink till HarbhajanSingh came on. In spite of that they were always in a comfortable position untilthey decided to make the game interesting. There is a method to madness and theWest Indies almost rewrote the script they have become accustomed to. Let's hopecommon sense prevails and Mongia is thought of for selection in the do-or-diegame against the Aussies.

I still believe this is a good Indian team but they would have to alter themethods in Mohali and play an extra batsman.

PTI