MIXED BAG CRICKET 2

One day cricket has come to stay.Having selected a test team that encompasses various generations I thought that a one-day team selected on similar lines will give a sense of completeness. My foray into such an attempt is as follows

Sachin Tendulkar
Virendar Sehwag
Mohinder Amarnath
Sandeep Patil
Rahul Dravid
Yuvraj Singh
Ravi Shastri
Kapil Dev(Captain)
Saba Karim(w.k)
Irfan Pathan
Harbhajhan Singh

The rationale behind the team composition goes like this;The team can bat upto number 11 .It was one of the reasons for choosing Bhajji ahead of others,for me Shastri is the other spin option - in my view he is one of the rare thinking cricketers and spin bowling all-rounders the nation has ever produced.Kapil ,Pathan and Mohinder are the medium pacers in the line up.I look for solidity,substance and flair from both Rahul and Sandeep in the middle order. Yuvraj is the typical one-day player,he is ideally suited to the shorter version of the game and his fielding is an asset.Saba Karim is a clean hitter and reliable man to have behind the stumps. Two towering stalwarts of the blitzkrieg namely - Sehwag and Sachin will breathe fire at the top of the order.

THOUGHTS

1. Compromise sparks failure.

2.Innocence sans ignorance is bliss.

3.World is a mirror - you are the image.

4.Please yourself to please others.

5.Strive to succeed;succumb to be surpassed.

6.If it is improbable,it is impossible as well.

7.Fear foretells failure.

MIXED BAG CRICKET 1

I was thinking about one of the test teams of India that would comprise of cricketers from various eras and I have chalked out one as it appears below.I must confess that I was constrained by virtue of having to select the team based on what I have heard of many who fit the bill rather than what I have seen of them.There is also an increased preferential treatment on my part to include players of recent times so it is bound to have a contemporary look in more ways than one.So ,my dream team shapes up this way

Sunil Gavaskar
Farookh Engineer(wk)
Gundappa Viswanath
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
V.V.S.Laxman
Kapil Dev(Captain)
Irfan Pathan
Javagal Srinath
Bishen Singh Bedi
Erapalli Prasanna

If you can look deeply even at the surface level, at the face of it there is a truth that will hit you.There are no left handers, considering the specialist batsmen,so bowlers will be left with one problem less,of adjusting their lines to a left-right combination.To be frank, no southpaw's name struck me while I thought of the batsmen.I was tempted to include three spinners but I was more inclined to give Srinath his due for his unparalled commitment on unresponsive wickets .So he got the better of Chandrasekar or even Anil Kumble for that matter.Spin is a craft and I guess it requires no two better exponents than the couple in the team to reveal that adage.I chose Farookh Engineer to don the gloves behind the wickets because he would open the innings as well.Kapil and Pathan are in my opinion undoubtedly talented cricketers with a big heart as well and they would walk into any world XI .The batsmen should pick themselves.No legends (in the true sense of the word) made into my team ,the reason for which has already been mentioned.