The Hindu : My 15... Harsha Bhogle

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - Cricket

My 15... Harsha Bhogle

When most players pick themselves, selection becomes an easy task. Like with all good teams, India's selectors need to take a decision on no more than two or three players when they meet to pick the World Cup team. That would suggest either stability or an uneasy degree of comfort. The reality, I think, tilts towards the former.

The World Cup allows you a squad of 15 and given that India are committed to playing 7 batsmen and four bowlers, we should start on the hypothesis that you need one extra in each category. So I would pick a batsmen, 4 seamers and 2 spinners. That leaves the fifteenth, one of the three spots worthy of debate.

Of the 8 batsmen, 6 pick themselves. Ganguly, Dravid, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Yuvraj and Kaif have done enough to earn a ticket. Given that the pitches are unlikely to be batting featherbeds, I would go for skill rather than flamboyance and pick V.V.S. Laxman as my 7th batsman.

The 8th batsman's slot is the first likely topic of debate and I would like to think Sanjay Bangar has done enough to score over other contenders. Dinesh Mongia's loss of form is inopportune and others like Hemang Badani, a really fine prospect a year ago, seem to be out of favour. It is interesting that, in spite of batting being India's major draw, there aren't too many others to look at!

The four seamers largely pick themselves though there must be a question mark over Ashish Nehra's temperament. Tinu Yohannan would have been a handy replacement but he doesn't look ready in the captain's eyes yet and the shockingly one-sided wickets we have seen recently means that you cannot assess Balaji yet. I would go for Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Nehra and Agarkar, who will be asked to contribute runs at number eight but, more important, to keep things tight.

It would be tempting to pick Murali Kartik but at a World Cup, a captain would like to see some experience around and so Anil Kumble must go with Harbhajan Singh. If the seamers can bowl enough to allow the spinners entry after the 15th over, as they must, things will look very different for them.

The 15th place will attract most debate. It would be very tempting to pick another batsman who can bowl seam-up but we couldn't see enough of either J. Yadav or Reetinder Sodhi to take a decision. A sharp runner in the field at No. 15 would be a bonus but that isn't a quality good enough in itself. I would actually prefer to have a back up for Rahul Dravid. He has had a very long season and should he pick up a niggle, India will be in dire straits. That is why Parthiv Patel would complete my squad of 15.

With Srinath, Kumble, Laxman, Zaheer and Nehra, it is a little short on athleticism in the field and that is the biggest worry. But from among those available, this is the best you can do.

The team: S. Ganguly, S. Tendulkar, R. Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Md. Kaif, V. Sehwag, S. Bangar, P. Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, J. Srinath, A. Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, A. Nehra.

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