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| Will Indian selectors be as bold as GenNext players? | | | Mumbai | Oct 21
A day after the one-off Twenty20 tie between India and Australia, the question that arises is, will the Indian selectors pay heed to Ricky Ponting's wish expressed after his team's comprehensive defeat?
The most telling of the Australian skipper's comments was "we would like to play more matches against the next generation of (Indian) players."
He said this simply because the Twenty20 world champions were full of vigour, vitality and will - a trait connected more to the way his own team plays - and which was, perhaps, missing from the home team during the preceding One-day series that the visitors won 4-2.
Twice, the Australians have met this next generation Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, sans the baggage of the seniors, and twice they have been outplayed.
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If anyone felt the Australians were a bit rusty in the T20 world championship, after a four-month break from cricket, the opinion would have changed after seeing the home team thrash the visitors at the Brabourne Stadium.
With deafening roars of the jam-packed crowd egging them on, the 'fight fire with fire' war-cry of Robin Uthappa ahead of the ODI series, turned into reality.
Agreed, the contest was limited to 20 overs and any quality batting line-up can last the course even with batsmen stepping out to the pace bowlers in a pre-determined fashion.
The same obviously cannot be replicated in the same measure by Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh in a 50-over contest, but this sort of attacking batting is what is necessary, with some cautious play in stages, in the ODIs and Test matches against the Australians.
Sadly, this was missing - barring the game at Chandigarh - in the ODIs with the seniors in attendance.
Did India pull their punches too much in the ODIs, is the question that must be addressed by the selectors when they choose the team for the five-match series against Pakistan, during the Challenger Series at Ahmedabad.
India could still win that contest with their conventional way of playing against the arch-rivals who recently lost a home Test series against South Africa.
But last night's match has shown in stark fashion that boldness of intent is what is needed if India are to do well in the triangular series in Australia after the conclusion of the four-Test series. |
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