Opinion CT squad,first draft for 2015?
Of the 15 names in Indias squad for the Champions Trophy,only four played in the 2011 World Cup
Of the 15 names in Indias squad for the Champions Trophy,only four played in the 2011 World Cup. None of Indias top four run-getters in that triumphant campaign Sachin Tendulkar,Gautam Gambhir,Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh or the top four wicket-takers Zaheer Khan,Yuvraj,Munaf Patel and Harbhajan Singh remain in Indias 50-over squad.
All of them,barring Munaf,were part of a long-serving core group who reached their collective peak during that World Cup. It was apparent even a few months after that peak that their career graphs,without exception,were sloping steeply downhill. But till as recently as August,when India finished an ODI series in Sri Lanka,all were still in or around the ODI side. It was hard to tell,at that point,whether the selectors were even thinking about planning for the 2015 World Cup.
But since September,when a new panel chaired by Sandeep Patil took over,a coherent approach has been in evidence. Zaheer,who played against Sri Lanka,was the first to go,followed by Sehwag. Tendulkar then retired from ODIs. Now,the selectors have dropped Gambhir and Yuvraj,the youngest members both are 31 of that group.
The eight ODIs that Yuvraj played between his comeback after cancer treatment and his axing told a pretty conclusive tale. He made only one 50-plus score in eight innings,and barely played any role with the ball. Where he had completed his full quota in all of the World Cup knockout games,he was now barely used,with new ODI rules which permitted only four fielders outside the circle and Ravindra Jadejas emergence consigning his left-arm spin to near-irrelevance.
The selectors culling of senior players,with a possible eye towards the World Cup,has echoes of January 2008,when Dilip Vengsarkars panel dropped Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid from the ODI squad. Between that triangular series in Australia and the 2011 World Cup,20 players made their debuts for India as they embarked on a period of relentless squad rotation to try and arrive at their best possible combination for the big event. Its quite likely that the current selection panel is thinking along those lines.
(Karthik is a principal correspondent based in New Delhi)
karthik.krishnaswamy@expressindia.com
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