Selectors invest in youth, no place for Ganguly, Dravid in ODI squad

The omission of Ganguly came as a surprise as the left-hander had been in good form in both the one-day and Test matches. BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah, however, insisted their emphasis was on youth.

Explaining the reasons behind ignoring Ganguly and Dravid, he said: “The emphasis was on fielding abilities and we wanted a young fielding side for the series. That’s why you see a lot of youngsters.” Sachin Tendulkar will be the team’s most experienced batsman.

Conspiracy theorists, however, may pore over the fact that Raina who was picked up today was among Greg Chappell’s favourites, while the controversial former coach made no bones about his feelings for Ganguly.

The 16-member ODI squad, to be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, will play India’s one-off Twenty20 match against Australia on February 1 and the subsequent tri-series. Yuvraj Singh, who struggled for runs in Australia and has injured his knee, was retained as the vice-captain, which the selectors said was again done keeping the future in mind.

With news filtering in at Perth about Ganguly’s omission, the mood in the Indian camp turned sombre. As evening descended, Ganguly tore himself away from the crowd and went for a quiet walk along the Swan river which flows behind the team hotel. Later, at the dinner to celebrate the historic WACA win, the smile was back, though he said little.

Before news came of his omission, Ganguly had been rejoicing with others in India’s win and calling the current team “a very good side that could be No.1”. Ironically, he also talked about how Australia were missing veterans Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, with its younger players buckling under pressure. “They are finding out that players can’t go on and play forever. Obviously they have less experience now. Their young players need to step up,” he said.

The two selectors present in Australia, Ranjib Biswal and Venkatapathy Raju, were consulted before the ODI team was announced, along with Dhoni, Yuvraj and Test team captain Kumble. Biswal, an East Zone selector, is believed to have met Ganguly and told him what was coming his way.

Sources say the ODI team was more or less formalised at Perth itself, with 18 names sent to Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Jagdale and Bhupinder Singh, including Ganguly and Murali Kartik. They were to drop two to decide a final 16. Finally, it all came down to Ganguly’s poor fielding abilities. Dhoni, Yuvraj and the selectors felt that on bigger grounds, this could prove a drawback.

Ganguly couldn’t find a place on the merit of runs either, as he hasn’t scored sufficiently high in the last eight ODIs while his contribution in the Perth match, unfortunately, was minuscule.

Twenty-one-year-old Raina, on the other hand, has managed 206 runs in three matches at a strike rate of 105, and 683 runs in eight Ranji matches. He makes a comeback exactly a year after he played his last ODI.

Still, there is no getting around the fact that Ganguly remains one-day cricket’s fourth highest run-getter. In the 30 matches since he made his dramatic comeback last year — after 16 months in the wilderness — Ganguly has scored 1,120 runs at an average of 43.07.

Statistically, it means he is as good as ever, considering he managed 837 runs in 30 matches prior to his comeback, 1,009 runs in 30 matches prior to the last 60 matches and 779 runs in 30 matches before the last 90.

Ganguly has also managed to maintain his fascinating opening record with Tendulkar.

However, says a selector, none of these statistics was on the table when the selection committee met today. The decision to drop Ganguly, he says, “was solely with the idea to make way for more youngsters”. At 35, selectors believe, Ganguly is past his sell-by date in a team where the average age is 25-28. Instead, the likes of Raina, Ishant Sharma and Piyush Chawla (who replace the injured Zaheer Khan and Murali Kartik respectively) have been included. Selectors also emphasised how the young Indian team (Read the T20 performers) has managed to catch up with the rest in the shorter format. They concluded that what was needed was fresh blood to inject excitement and agility into the team.

“It makes a lot of difference. Good fielding can help save 15-20 runs and it is as important as scoring that many. All teams have good batsmen and bowlers, the emphasis is on fielding,” the selector said. He added that players of a similar age group were also expected to bond, understand each other better.

Asked whether it was the end of the road for Ganguly in ODIs, Shah said: “He is a great player and can come back.”