My Cup of Eleven

I have good amount of optimism about India's chances in World Cup 2007. I believe the pieces of the puzzle are slowly falling into place. So, here is my eleven for the World Cup given present form and fitness. I will give the reasons for my optimism later on in the post.

1. Sourav Ganguly
2. R. Uthappa
3. R. Dravid
4. S. Tendulkar
5. Yuvraj Singh
6. MS. Dhoni (wk)
7. V. Sehwag
8. Irfan Pathan
9. AB. Agarkar
10. Harbhajan Singh
11. Zaheer Khan

The rest to make up the 15 are as follows:
12. Dinesh Kartik (wk/middle order bat)
13. S. Sreesanth
14. Ramesh Powar
15. VVS. Laxman


Let me give you my opinions about each one case by case:

1. Ganguly has done enough till now to be included in the squad as the first choice opener. He has scored runs regularly since his return in all conditions home and abroad. Also, the fellows unquestionable thirst for the bigger stage will hold India in good stead. If I were the coach, I will tell him not to throw away his wicket and build his innings as far as possible. He can let the fireworks burst from the other end and shift gears later on when possibly Dravid or Tendulkar come on.

2. Uthappa has shown in his recent innings that he can be the able explosive partner for Ganguly. He is hitting the ball well at the moment carrying on his great nick from domestic competition. Gautam Gambhir is prone to be nervy and chancier than Uthappa, in my opinion. Uthappa seems to play straighter than him and hence, is a better option. He has also tasted international waters already. So, is a better bet on the whole.

3. Dravid forms the fulcrum of the team. The longer he stays at the wicket the better are India's chances. He is the lone man in the team whom you can expect to rotate the strike, shepherd the tail and generally fight till finish.

4. Tendulkar has hit good enough form to be depended on for the middle order. But he is not in that good a form to open the innings. His presence in the middle order can be greatly comforting to the batsmen coming before him. So, I'll play him in the middle order despite his much published resistance.

5. Yuvraj should be fit enough with couple more matches under his belt.

6. Dhoni should be an automatic choice for the wicketkeeping slot. But Dinesh Kartik has done better with the gloves and enough with the bat to justify his place as well. On the other hand, Dhoni will be more explosive anytime. But Kartik might be played when the pitch looks more sluggish and the ball is not supposed to come to the bat easily.

7. There are two brave picks in my choice of the team and Sehwag forms the first one. I'll play Sehwag as a specialist off-spinner expecting him to bat down the order, which incidentally is his preferred choice as well. If he gets on with his batting, no score would be out of reach. He is a more than decent off-spinner and has shown good form in the field as well. So, he is my choice above Kumble.

From whatever I have seen of Kumble, he is not bowling well at all. In the only match that India lost of West Indies in the current series, he was bowling too far short and too far down the leg. Nothing to speak of his batting as well.

8. Pathan is the other brave pick given his current bad form with the ball. But when he is bowling well, he gives an incredible balance to the side given that he has been batting well all these days. Going by the break he has had and with a little more match practice, he can be expected to deliver the goods. But he needs to be played in at least a couple more matches against the forthcoming series against Sri Lanka. Sreesanth has just missed out from the team due to his lack of control shown recently. Also, he has had limited success with the left handlers and they tend to upset his rhythm. Since, he bowls well to the righthanders, he can be played
instead of Pathan depending on the opposition composition.

9. Agarkar is an improved customer overall and can be relied for the new ball duties along with Zaheer who, like Ganguly, has made a very successful and disciplined comeback to the Indian team.

10. Harbhajan and Zaheer fill up the spinner and fast bowler slots. Harbhajan has been bowling well in the one day variety.

11. Of the rest, Laxman forms the backup middle order bat. His experience will come in good stead in case of injury to any of the senior players. I believe that he is in decent nick as well. He made quite some runs in South Africa in tests. Picking him for the solitary one dayer and then dropping him again on account of the same bad fielding excuse is just plain stupidity and makes no sense at all. He should be there to mend the solidity of the middle order in case of injuries.

12. Ramesh Powar didn't perform all that well during the last tour to Caribbean and was subsequently dropped from the team. But he provides options in terms of his accuracy and is a wicket taking option which one should not ignore. He can be quite useful in the low, slow conditions that one might encounter in the Caribbean. So, he should be a match by match choice like Sreesanth.

So, that's my team for the cricket World Cup. We will win the cup with this team. And never mind those Aussie bullies ;-)