The announcement of 30 member Indian squad for the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has surprised everybody. The selectors have completely overlooked the prominent names like Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir.
Can India retain the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015?
The question about the selection was imminent, especially after these omissions. Now the question emerges “Is the current Team India better than the previous squad that won the last World Cup? Apart from Sachin Tendulkar, who already took retirement, most of the other players were available for inclusion to the list of World Cup probables yet the selection stunned every cricket fan.
The problem is not with the overemphasis of youngsters in the team, but how they completely ignored the experienced cricketers. No doubt as the team is raring to conquer the coveted trophy one more time some questions are needed to be asked in this regard.
Primarily the very first question that the selectors should answer is the fact that how many of these cricketers have gone to Australia in their career? Obviously barring Dhoni, Kohli and Raina most of the present Indian players would be going to Australia for the first time. They are not yet accustomed to the grounds of Australia or New Zealand either. Henceforth Selectors should have chosen instead a right combination of youths and experienced.
In recent times the senior cricketers have got very lesser opportunity in the team. The five experienced cricketers as mentioned above, including Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Harbhajan and Zaheer have not played any ODI match in the last one year. In current times youngsters have comparatively got larger opportunities than the seniors.
BCCI officials still believe that although the experienced cricketers have not been included in the 30 member Indian squad for the upcoming World Cup, but still they could be picked in the final 15 member Indian team for the cricket’s biggest tournament. BCCI has to submit the names of these final 15 members by January 7, 2015 to the ICC. However, it would be indeed very difficult for any of the senior cricketers to the upcoming World Cup next year.
The selection was based on the recent performance of the cricketers and undoubtedly the youngsters have really played some good cricket on a consistent basis. The latest statistics reveal that senior cricketers did not perform well over the last few months together. Swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag has managed only an average of 20 runs in the last 13 ODIs he has played in the last couple of years. Similarly dashing batsman Yuvraj Singh could score only 168 runs from five matches in the recently held Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Gautam Gambhir has also failed to perform in the last two years. The classy batsman has scored with an average of around 24 runs in the last 30 ODIs that he played during this period. Neither age nor fitness is in their favor either.
Amongst senior bowlers, Zaheer Khan didn’t participate in any competitive cricket for the last half year since IPL 7 or Pepsi Indian Premiere League 2014 owing to some fitness issues. Harbhajan Singh too has not performed as per the expectation. The ace off spinner has recently led Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy but his performance was the lackluster one. The ace off spinner took only seven wickets in six matches of this domestic tournament. Henceforth I leave it for the fans to decide if they feel that the current Team India is the best to retain the World Cup or not.
Team India’s 30-member probables for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: MS Dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli, M Vijay, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, Kedar Jadhav, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Karn Sharma, Axar Patel, Parveez Rasool, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ashok Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav and Stuart Binny.
Tags: BCCI, Cricket, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, ICC, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, India, Squad, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan
