Selectors overlooked Ganguly & Dravid

With the new one-day squad out, the absence of names like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman has generated much fury among cricket lovers. As three of the batsmen are well in their form with lot more experience in Australian pitches keeping them out from the ODI team is a critical question that the selectors need to answer logically in the coming days.

The National Selection Board chaired by Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Jagdale and Bhupinder Singh on Sunday announced a 20-member squad for the upcoming tri-series with Australia and Sri Lanka. Youngsters like Sreesanth, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawala, Ishant Sharma, and Praveen Kumar are given chance.

No doubt Dravid and Ganguly are in their well of form as both have scored considerably in the last three Test matches against Australia. However, selectors picked Suresh Raina ahead of Sourav just because of his excellent performance in domestic circuit.

The present selection mode has shown that the selectors preferred to go with youth considering the last Twenty20 performance in South Africa. But is it wise to give youngsters a chance in fast and bouncy pitch of Australia where players like Yuvraj and MS Dhoni have failed in the ongoing Test series?

Giving a chance to Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma stands in the right place as far as bowling is concerned. But keeping batsmen like Dravid and Ganguly outside who have scored together more than 21,000 runs in ODIs seems like gaming, as besides a good fielding side putting runs on the board matters a lot in limited version.

Again as most of the comeback players were playing in domestic matches, it becomes important for them to go through a conditioning camp before being finalised. Barely two weeks to go how can young players inexperienced of Australian climate and bouncy pitches make themselves comfortable in a new condition is also a considerable thing that those selectors should have kept in mind.

Dravid due to his poor form had already missed the home series against Australia and Pakistan, but he showed a good temperament in the third Test at Perth and that was just a sign of his back of form.

Again why selectors were in so much hurry to announce the squad as there is another Test match to be played at Adelaide?

Though it is important for a change of guard but that need to be done gradually by picking a team of experienced as well as youth and too by giving ample time to youngster to adjust in the alien condition.

Squad: Mahendra Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Sree Santh, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla and Pravin Kumar.