Let’s try and put ourselves in Suresh Raina’s place. After 65 games he averages 35. In the last two years that goes up to 45 from 29 games. Interestingly, apart from five games in New Zealand, the others have been played on the sub-continent. In four innings in New Zealand he scored 125 with two not outs, which leaves little to complain about. So the only reason he could be out in the ‘wait and see’ rack is the feeling that he cannot handle short-pitched bowling.

There is another way to look at it though. There are two months between now and the Champions Trophy and there is a full fledged National Cricket Academy, one of whose objectives is to look at corrective measures for established players. Either Raina, and Rohit Sharma for that matter, could spend four weeks there, or a week, then the ‘A’ tournament in Australia (where there would have been enough opportunity to test them against short pitched bowling) and then back to the academy.

The question the selectors would therefore have asked themselves is: do we react quickly to what we believe and have seen a bit of (the susceptibility to short pitched bowling), or do we give the young men an extended run and back them to solve problems like these which are part of a cricketer’s development anyway? It might be worth considering the positives, which is that Raina and Sharma, and indeed Ravindra Jadeja, emerge from the Champions Trophy having conquered their weakness and become significantly better players as a result. And in any case, we are talking of playing a few overs, not a whole day against terrifying fast bowlers whose numbers are dwindling anyway!

... contd.