The paper bowlers of Indian team

Dravid, who rarely, if at all, bowls even for Karnataka, had no clue on how to handle the pressure of the situation.

Even earlier, Sachin Tendulkar was being used extensively as a bowler, as the skipper simply had no confidence in those chosen specifically for the task, like Thiru Kumaran and Robin Singh.

Dravid and even Tendulkar, are, at best, options to juggle with, rather than be entrusted with the responsibilities of a full-fledged bowler. As far as taking a chance goes, it sometimes has to be backed by some sort of logic.

On selections, the selectors’ continued choice of Nikhil Chopra is a mystery. In Australia, the then captain Tendulkar did not have the confidence to bowl him in a single One-Dayer. And now even at home, he has not played in any of the three One-Dayers. How ironic then that India have a player in whose bowling abilities, the selectors simply have no confidence, yet find him good enough to be retained in the 14 for the rest of the matches and even for Sharjah!

And he is not the sole case. Take Amit Bhandari. They did not have faith in his abilities even in the absence of Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, but tagged him along anyway only to dump him once again.

If these seem odd, the case of the wicket-keeper is just as weird. It now seems like he is part of the skipper’s quota. If Tendulkar had Sameer Dighe, Ganguly now has State-mate Saba Karim who was not even part of the Challenger Series. (Wonder whom Dravid will have if chosen skipper. He has to choose between Somashekar Shiraguppi, Thilak Naidu and himself!)

Robin Singh, who believed he should have been given more bowling in the World Cup, now finds that three successive skippers do not share his opinion on his bowling prowess.

Mohammed Azharuddin then, followed by Tendulkar and now Ganguly have no use for him as a bowler. As far as pinch-hitting is concerned, the present skipper ranks him after Sunil Joshi. Really, have the selectors taken the skipper into confidence while entrusting him with a team?

TAILPIECE: Tamil Nadu’s S Sharath, who has been scoring heavily for the last two seasons at least, must be feeling he would have had better opportunities if he was in a different company. Likewise, WV Raman must be kicking himself for a premature retirement. May be, the time for a three-member selection committee, each having played a minimum of 20 Tests, as Ajit Wadekar wanted it, is now!