World Cup Cricket 2019 Selection Conundrum

Selection is a negative process whereas recruitment is a positive one. Last week World Cup cricket 2019 Indian team selection speaks the same story. Be it Risbah Pant, Vijay Sankar, Dinesh Karthik or Ambati Rayudu, mention choices of many. Now the question arises do the selectors hit the bull’s eye or they simply missed a trick by a whisker.

Coming back to the above-cited players if we make one to one comparison, Pant looks to be a stronger and comfortable option rather than others. Starting from stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar to Ricky Ponting everybody speaks augur well about the southpaw. Definitely, he is a rare breed and absolute murderer of a cricket ball. But he is purely picked as a middle order batsmen because his gloves work behind the stumps have raised eyebrows of many cricket pundits. Another interesting reason may be for his surprise omission is closing games, for which we may require nudgers and playing the ball in gaps for stealing single and converting ones into twos like the class of Michel Bevan rather than power hitting.

He might have proved his mettle in test cricket mostly overseas conditions with two exceptional and sensational centuries against England and Australia but his one-day performances do not sound well. His meek dismissals against weak opposition like West Indies and emerging and re-grouping Australian and below-par average 23.25 mostly in home condition does not cement his place in One-day team. Taking a risk can be a gamble in world-cup like event which may be a career-changing criterion.

Talking about Rayudu vs Sankar the earlier performance is better than Sankar. He averages in one –day at a healthy rate i.e, 47.06. But as rightly advocated by MSK Prasad, chief selector of senior cricket team BCCI,” Sankar is a 360-degree player”. Sanker bowling looks ordinary in Sub-continent conditions where he hardly bowls but in English condition, he can be a handy asset when the weather is overcast and the bowl will be taking in the air. He can give you some game-changing odd break-through. Sankar is an excellent fielder and his batting has come of age in recent times with rare failures(avg;33.0 both in India and overseas conditions).

Now taking attention to another debatable selection, Dinesh Karthik, who is picked purely as a wicket keeper batsmen with better keeping record than Pant and can be a good finisher in crunch situations though still not proved immensely in one-days. As Dhoni is no more getting younger and World cup is a long tournament, India may provide some rest to his all-time best finisher ever in this format.

Having discussed the selection conundrum we must remain sanguine that India must emerge as the conquering of the world cup one –day cricket. They should supplant their 83’s heroes by lifting the cup for the third time with a  trademark British champagne in their hands.