Lot of people, even senior cricketers, seems to have gone ga-ga over selection this tem for the WC'07. On paper, yes ... definitely the names are imposing. But in reality? The West Indies have new relaid pitches, which will tend to be slower and unpredictable. Spinners will definitely have a place especially as the pitches are played on, and summer becomes warmer. I simply fail to understand why a "name" is preferred to an "in form" player, though not necessarily a rookie. Bowlers like Kumble and Agarkar would definitely not have any impact on the WI ODI pitches. In fact, Kumble does not have a good record in WI at all. Sehwag is completely out of form presently. In any case, he used to fire on an average in 1 out of 6~8 matches even when he played well. Lately, that has become nearly 0 out of a dozen plus. Do we have so many matches to play in the WC that we need to "persist" with him? Tendulkar, touch wood, seems to be recovering his form a little. He is certainly nowhere near his peak. Yuvraj is most inconsistent. His records say that he peaks once in 2 years. Facts say that that was Yuvraj's last year. He also does not provide much confidence for the WC. Hopefully, he will prove me wrong. Only Zaheer, Munaf, Ganguly, Utthappa, Dhoni, Sreesanth, and Dravid provide confidence as they seem to be in form. Harbhajan is a necessity. There are better batsmen than Karthick (Manoj Tewari, or even Parthiv Patel being one). Kaif should have been there too. I would also plump for Ranadeb Bose and Joginder Singh in lieu of Kumble and Agarkar. That leaves 3 more places for 'hopeful' favourites of Tendulkar, Sehwag, and either Murali Kartik or Powar. Or both in lieu of Sehwag. Even Pathan can be incorporated. So my team would be : Openers : Ganguly / Utthappa (Sehwag) Numbers 3~5 : Tendulkar / Tewari / Dravid (Kaif/Yuvraj) Numbers 6~7 : Dhoni / Joginder Singh (OR Irfan Pathan) Spinner 8 : Harbhajan / (Powar OR Kartik) Pacers 9 : Zaheer Pacers 10-11 : Munaf / Bose (OR Sreesanth) Reserves : Four out of the 7 in brackets. If Harbhajan is really not in form, then both Powar and Kartik.
