Toss-up between Chawla,Sreesanth

Shamik Chakrabarty Kolkata,January 16 A brief glance at the 15-member squad that represented India at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies is quite indicative of the fact that there hasn’t been any drastic change in personnel four years hence. Youngsters,Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina,may have established settled places in the national team’s ODI setup in recent times after taking over the spots left vacant by the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid — who skippered the team during the previous edition. But the fulcrum of the team,however,remains pretty much the same. The bowling is led by Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh while the batting still revolves mainly around Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh. And with 13 of the 15 literally picking themselves,the national selectors should have a relatively easy job when they meet in Chennai on Monday to announce the final squad for the 2011 World Cup. The remaining couple of places,however,could cause a minor headache for the Kris Srikkanth-led selection committee,especially since they are yet to decide upon the final configuration of the squad. And the most-discussed issue could well be whether to go in with five fast bowlers or pick the second spinner. While a combination of nine batsmen including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni,four seamers,one specialist spinner and a spin-bowling all-rounder should seem an ideal composition for an ODI tournament to be played in the subcontinent; according to sources,the team management is said to be in favour of going with Piyush Chawla to add variety to the attack. A couple of the selectors,however,are believed to prefer Sreesanth —as the fifth,back-up pacer — over the Uttar Pradesh leg-spinner citing the dodgy fitness records of Zaheer and Ashish Nehra. Praveen Kumar’s South African sojourn too had come to an early end after the swing-bowler sustained an elbow injury. Kumar though is a certainty and is expected to be fit in time for the World Cup. “As of now we don’t have any injury concerns. If anything comes up (in the physio’s report) before the meeting,we will inform,” BCCI secretary N Srinivasan told The Indian Express. But considering that the Indian team will be playing their seven league matches — including those against minnows Ireland and The Netherlands — over a period of almost 25 days,the schedule is not expected to be an overload for the Indian fast bowlers. Part-timers or specialist According to the selectors,Yuvraj,Raina and Yusuf Pathan are all capable part-time bowlers and will provide sufficient spinning options along with Harbhajan. But the team management begs to differ. With both England and South Africa in India’s group,Dhoni is said to want Chawla in the squad as the two sides have a history of wobbling against wrist spin. “Dhoni has the logic,but why didn’t he play Chawla in the first two matches (in South Africa)? We expect a player to go into an event like the World Cup with some international matches behind him,” a selector told this paper. The 21-year-old Chawla has come back to the ODI fold after a two-year hiatus and the issue of his selection is set to be a hot topic during the meeting. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin,who has the vote of at least one selector,too meanwhile is in the race but he seems to have only an outside chance. In the unlikely case that both Chawla and Sreesanth are picked,Rohit Sharma might well have to wait till 2015 to earn a World Cup cap. The Mumbai middle-order batsman was not in the original squad for South Africa and was drafted in only after Sehwag was ruled out. There is also this possibility of the selectors picking a second specialist keeper. If that happens,then Sharma will definately miss out,but at the momoment this scenario looks highly unlikely. Though there might be a stark resemblance in the overall look of the Indian squad despite the four-year difference,the Dhoni-led outfit in contrast to back then have deservedly earned a reputation of being world-beaters. And also one with the ability to win matches from any position like they proved on Saturday with the most dramatic of victories over the South Africans at Johannessburg. And the selectors will be confident that whatever final combination they do end up with,this World Cup will definitely produce much more glory compared to the humiliating early departure last time around. The likely final squad: M S Dhoni (captain),Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag,Gautam Gambhir,Yuvraj Singh,Suresh Raina,Virat Kohli,Yusuf Pathan,Rohit Sharma/Parthiv Patel,Harbhajan Singh,Zaheer Khan,Ashish Nehra,Praveen Kumar,Munaf Patel,Piyush Chawla/R Ashwin/ S Sreesanth.