For the wise men, left isn’t always right

As the selectors announced the final 16 for the Australian Test series on Saturday there were mixed feelings about the team which leaves on November 21. A cause of concern was the pace department’s combined experience of 55 Tests, the choice of Anil Kumble over Murali Kartik was debatable while the inclusion of specialist opener S Ramesh was a step in the right direction.

RAW PACE OR GREEN HORNS?

This happens to be most inexperienced pace department ever to tour Australia in the recent past. Zaheer Khan with 26 Tests is the senior most while Ashish Nehra (13) and Ajit Agarkar (16) too aren’t among the India regulars. Avishkar Salvi and Irfan Pathan are yet to play a Test. But with Srinath’s retirement the selectors had no options. The 1991-92 Indian tour party too had a couple of debutants – Javagal Srinath and Subroto Banerjee – but it was led by the Kapil Dev who had already played 110 Tests. The 1999-2000 tour saw Srinath, with 41 Tests behind him, leading the pace pack. Prasad was his trusted deputy with 13 Tests. Agarkar was just a Test old.
How did they fare:
1991-92: Kapil: 25 wickets; Prabhakar: 19; Srinath: 10. This meant that the pace department had done their bit but the batsmen failed to compliment their performance. Though there were some tight matches but India lost the five-Test series 4-0.
1999-2000: Agarkar: 11 wickets; Srinath: 10; Prasad 7. The much-hyped pace department fails to deliver. The batsmen too were no better. A no-contest. The Aussies complete a 3-0 rout.

SPECIALIST GETS IN

Opener Ramesh’s inclusion over Yuvraj has been a real positive. A man with an average of 38 from 19 Tests and two hundreds coming in place for a one-Test middle-order batsman makes sense. Having two specialist openers – the other is Akash Chopra – on the tour party to Australia is certainly a step in the right direction. And with the middle-order full of stars, Yuvraj would have been wasted.

Saurav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice-captain),
Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, S Ramesh, VVS Laxman, Akash Chopra, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Parthiv Patel, Deep Das Gupta, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra and Aviskhar Salvi.
Manager: N Shivlal Yadav
Coach: John Wright

KUMBLE Kumble’s last five-wicket haul abroad was in 1996 against the West Indies. The last time Kumble went to Australia he took five wickets in three Tests at a strike rate of 175 runs. Though Kumble has been among wickets regularly at home but the recent series against New Zealand showed that the sting is lacking. To his credit, Kumble had a match haul of seven wickets in India’s rare away win over England last year.

KARTIK He has been a consistent performer on the domestic circuit and has played a big role in Railways’ phenomenal change of fortunes. He was said to be the pick of the lot in the recent TVS Cup but once again he has missed the bus. The last Test he played was in 2000-01 and since then he has watched Test match action either from the sidelines or the stands. A left-arm spinner with a classical action, Kartik is suited for the longer version but strangely the selectors think otherwise.

— Sandeep Dwivedi & Chandresh Narayanan