Time for selectors to project their vision for the future

Like a rock and roll festival coming to an end, T20 is winding down and it is time to begin to appreciate a symphony; the bhangra will give way to the sitar and we must learn to acknowledge the nuances of the alaap again, its gentle flow towards a rich end-experience. Eight Test matches between now and March will allow connoisseurs of five day cricket the joy they believe is interrupted by the loud three hour version.

And India have much thinking to do. The 0-8 may not have generated the kind of debate, and corrective action, we would have liked but it cannot be brushed away. Established players are looking vulnerable, outstanding players are experiencing dusk and the new generation will have graduated from the school of shorter cricket. There is much work to be done and the time has come for selectors, now well paid, to project their vision for the future of Indian cricket.

In an ideal world, the new selection committee should sit down to pick two teams: one that will play the first two Tests against England, and another that will take the field in July 2014 in England, or even in November 2014 in Australia. For India to regain the No. 1 slot, both those have to be winnng teams. And so, If the latter teams have to be competitive, it must influence the way they pick the earlier team now because investments made in players, like those made by banks to high profile corporations, have begun to look poor. Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar were invested in and are not being sighted, Sreesanth and RP Singh have almost vanished, Amit Mishra and Rahul Sharma are not preferred anymore, No 6 has been a revolving door and Abhinav Mukund and Murali Vijay haven't exactly produced great returns either.

... contd.

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