My Indian T20 team
May 22nd 2008 11:23
1) Virender Sehwag
2) Gautam Gambhir
3) Rohit Sharma
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) Shikhar Dhawan
6) Venugopal Rao
7) Mahendra Singh Dhoni
8) Irfan Pathan
9) Anil Kumble
10) S. Sreesanth
11) Ishant Sharma
Reserves:
12) Yousuf Pathan
13) Suresh Raina
14) Subramaniam Badrinath
15) Rahul Dravid/Yuvraj Singh
16) Ashoke Dinda
The fifth bowlers' job would be done by Venugopal Rao, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. Depending on whether it works or not, Rao or Dhawan may be replaced by the allrounder Yousuf Pathan. If additional solidity in terms of batting is needed, there is the ever dependable Rahul Dravid. And the fast bowlers too have good backup in Dinda. Praveen Kumar, I feel, missed out to the dynamic and fresh-striking Suresh Raina. The prime allrounder's slot went to Irfan Pathan while his elder brother Yousuf secured the reserve allrounder's spot due to his overall better batting and just about capable bowling. Munaf Patel too misses out on the reserve fast bowlers' spot but not by much.
One last thought here. I seem to have initially missed out on the talented but mercurial Yuvraj Singh. He may not be in prime form now. But he is a very talented batsman and a useful bowler to boot. I think he can share that slot there with Dravid. I think it would be a fair selection even if either one of them is selected. If they want solidity combined with some thrust, they can select Dravid and if they solely want fire and ballast, they can go for Yuvraj. I know that if the T20 tournament was going to happen anywhere outside the subcontinent I would prefer Dravid.
The only weakness to this squad is probably the fact that there is no main replacement spinner for Kumble. And depending on the situation the wicket keeper Dhoni can come up ahead of Rao and/or Dhawan.
Sachin Tendulkar captains the side with Dhoni as his deputy. Virender Sehwag too could be a very interesting choice for vice captain. But for now I am quite happy with the way Dhoni has gone about leading the Chennai team and the way in which he has handled the team's failures. So, lets go with him.
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