After a year, India may go for 5 bowlers

Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh: whom do you drop?

It’s a problem that every world captain would queue up to answer. But not, maybe, in this exam hall, at this time of the year, with rumours, leaks and showcause notices buzzing in the background.

And when the answers were finally revealed at a team meeting this evening, it was obvious that the management would have chewed through quite a few pencils over the last three days.

The first question, it is believed, was the easiest — Dravid had already told Dinesh Kaarthick and Wasim Jaffer that they would pick up from that 153-run opening partnership that nearly swung India’s last Test match, against South Africa.

And then? Surprise, surprise. The door had shut on Laxman and Yuvraj — this time, the team is actually serious about playing five bowlers on a pale pitch that will offer more bounce.

As for Yuvraj, who spoiled his CV during the one-day series, he might as well step back now in the queue to be vice-captain for the England tour, let Kaarthick and Dhoni nudge it out. So there you go, Dravid probably at No 3, followed by Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dhoni.

“We can’t obviously play the eight batsmen. Someone is going to have to miss out and going to be unlucky,” Dravid had said earlier, adding, “I mean it is never going to be easy to drop anyone, irrespective of who they are. But sometimes you have to do it.”

Five bowlers, and that too, for the first time after the Mumbai Test against England exactly one year ago? “We do have the option of possibly playing five bowlers in these conditions, considering the weather and the wicket and what we are trying to achieve in this game. We have a basic idea and pretty broad plan of what we want to do and what we want to achieve. The specifics, we will tie that down later,” said Dravid.

... contd.