Dilip Vengsarkar has asked Irfan Pathan to prove his fitness in a Deodhar Trophy game ahead of the the Indian teams’ departure to the West Indies. The team departs for the World Cup on February 28th. Pathan has been asked to play a Deodhar Trohpy game for West Zone against Central Zone on Sunday 25th February.
Pathan played only one game of a possible max of five games against West Indies and Sri Lanka. Pathan made his comeback for game-3 against the Windies. After playing that one game, he was benched for the remaining games due to a stiff-shoulder that captain Rahul Dravid did not want to aggravate further. Pathan’s injury occurred on Jan 31st. Pathan himself tried to downplay the extent of the injury. However, the Board wasn’t happy with the explanation and wanted to match-test him prior to commiting his presence on the World Cup team.
Good thinking in my view — especially given the circumstances. Munaf Patel, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag — the other comeback-men in the team — have been played into some sort of form. Moreover, Munaf Patel and Yuvraj Singh — both making post-injury comebacks — have acquired sufficient match-time under their belts. Irfan Pathan seemed to have escaped the scanner. Until now that is…
Dilip Vengsarkar and the Board have insisted that Pathan plays the Deodhar trophy game. Vengsarkar has even suggested that the Board would be willing to drop Pathan in case he doesn’t pull up effectively in that game. Three of the selection committee members — Dilip Vengsarkar, Bhupinder Singh, Ranjib Biswal — are slated to be present at the game on Sunday!
In the game itself, Amol Mazumdar, the West Zone captain, may feel forced — by this intense scrutiny — to use and stress-test Pathan. However, if Mazumdar feels that there hands on the wheel of the bus other than his own, then, the selectors already have their solution! They’d then need to find an alternative! Clearly, if Pathan is not good enough for West Zone, he can’t be good enough for India!
While Dilip Vengsarkar maintains that the selection team do not have an alternative in mind, I’d be quite surprised if they did not have a few players to chose from.
– Mohan
Player fitness is atmost important for selection to the team. I am happy Dilip is paying attention to it.
Zaheer Khan was unfit for the Melbourne test in Australia, and India played the test with 3 bowlers – and lost the test match.
Munaf was not fit and still played the test at South Africa.
A fully fit VRV singh is better than half fit Pathan.
gnbmdr
Agreed on the “prove fitness” ruling. We need to take fit players into games/tournaments unless there is a compelling case. For example, if Sachin Tendulkar had a bicep tear which was expected to completely heal by game-2 of the campaign, say, I think the team would risk him. Irfan Pathan is in a different category.
If a replacement were needed, I don’t believe VRV is a good option. I’d go for a like-for-like replacement (almost-allrounder for almost-allrounder). The choices are limited here. So, I’d go for either Romesh Powar or Joginder Sharma. Anything else (pure bat or pure bowler) would affect team-balance quite badly.
Unfortunately there is no one else around.
Joginder Sharma – An untested and one match failure! Better to stick with Pathan. I think the selectors will go for Powar or take another batsman in Raina.
Andy Roberts had high praise for VRV. He was a bit unlucky in the West Indies series. I thought RP Singh was also a good talent.
Is Balaji career over ? He hit straight six of Akthar !!
On another topic –
I feel that Romesh Powar would be better than Harbhajan Singh. Murali Karthik is also unlucky not to get a slot. He is a good bowler, fielder, …
All eyes will be on Sehwag, if he can pull his weight.
Murali frigging Karthik? Gosh? And Balaji?
Wow gnbmdr, thankfully you didn’t throw Pankaj Roy into the mix too!!
Sanjay, I know Joginder wasa a one-match failure. But I was talking of a like-for-like replacement for Pathan — should that be necessary. I agree that Powar may be a good choice.
Murali Karthik is only 31 years old, much younger than some of the senior statesmen in our team. L. Balaji is 26 years old.
I liked the flighted spin bowling of Murali Karthik, reminds of Bishen Bedi. It was said that L. Balaji was one bowler who could move the ball bothways of the seam. I understand SreeSanth has only one stock ball – the one that moves away.
Murali Kartik
Born September 11, 1976, Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu
Lakshmipathy Balaji
Born September 27, 1981, Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu
I am aware of their ages mdrgnb. My comment had less to do with their ages and more about ability and whether or not these players are even in the peripheral vision of the selectors! Any good bowler other than Kartik would have won *that* Sydney test for us — S.Waugh’s last. I can’t ever forget that frustration.
Anyways, Balaji does not play even for Tamil Nadu these days.
Kartik played 6 games for Railways last season in the Plate league. He scored60 runs at 8.57 and got 19 wickets at 22.89. He hasn’t been setting even the Plate-world on fire these days!
I have been seeing Balaji at my local gym here. He is still not fit. I also remember reading a short report that he is off to England for some treatment. So he is nowhere in the reckoning at the moment.
Assuming that they cannot pick from outside the 3o probables, in the absence of Raina or Kaif, I would go for Dinesh Mongia as a replacement for Pathan if he does not get through an injury. Having said that I would dearly hope that Pathan goes even if not fully fit. I would absolutely want Pathan to bat at 7 instead of Karthik…I am working on a posting with respect to batting orders hopefully this weekend.
Oh man, Dinesh Kaarthik is the most successful batsman in the recent times. Indian batting depends on Karthik, Dhoni and Ganguly in recent times. I am hoping that Karthik has a very good world cup. His technique and shot selection, strokes are awesome.
Pathan has become more a batsman than a bowler. Someone like Gilchrist or Hayden will brutal on slow medium like Pathan.
I still remember Ponting’s onehand six of Srinath in the World cup finals.
Mongia would be a good choice.
India would have won the Sydney test if
1. they had contained and gotten Simon Katich out in the first innings instead of letting him farm the strike
2. had shown a little more enterprise and declared their first and second innings sooner.
At the end of the day, it was a paucity of time that cost us.
About Karthik – Dravid has been the best captain Karthik has played under. Gangulyhad no idea on how to handle left arm spinners.
Coming to the Pathan issue, there is no viable replacement for him. If there was, that person should have played in the SL series.
Balaji has stress fractures in his back. I hope he comes back, esp for the England series.
Ganguly’s problem was that he didn’t think highly of left-arm spinners. He treated them with scant respect when he batted and carried that into his captaincy — witness Nilesh Kulkarni being used only in a containing role in the Chennai Test, 2001. Another example is Rahul Sanghvi.