Full strength, or walking wounded?

Prem Panicker

Now here's a little curiosity -- the Indian team picked for the ODI series in South Africa, starting October 3, has five players coming back from injury.

To wit: Sachin Tendulkar (toe), Ashish Nehra (groin), Anil Kumble (shoulder), Javagal Srinath (finger), VVS Laxman (knee).

The national selectors have picked all five. The selectors, too, have picked five standbys, whose names they refused, positively, to divulge (while on that, it is easier getting information out of the Prime Minister and his senior colleagues, than out of the selectors -- increasingly, the National Security Act seems to apply only to the doings of the latter).

And they say there will be a fitness test on September 22, just two days before the team's scheduled departure. And curiously, team physio Andrew Leipus will not be taking the test himself -- instead, the Board has decreed that the Mumbai-based Dr Anant Joshi will conduct the test, and report on the results. "Joshi has had a word with Leipus, he knows how to conduct the test," says our good friend Jaywant Lele.

Do we need noseplugs? Does something smell fishy? Are we, for whatever reason, manouevering to send cricket's walking wounded to South Africa? And could the reason for that be that the contract system gets into operation from that point on, and the board does not want to give contracts to some players, then leave them behind on the grounds of injury and pick, and pay for, others?

Like I said, you can ask questions till you are hoarse, but you won't get any answers, not from this bunch.

Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly can smile -- for the first time since he took over, he's been given a full strength Indian side. John Wright can smile, too -- as far back as the second Test against Australia in the home series earlier this year, he was telling us that he was "positively salivating" at the prospect of throwing Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, in tandem, at the Proteas.

They've both, captain and coach, got their wish now.

Actually, this particular selection exercise is strangely free of shocks. It was a given that Dighe would go and Deep Das Gupta led the list of contenders for the keeper's slot -- so that choice was automatic. And good -- Das Gupta has silky hands behind the stumps, especially to spin, and is a good bat in the Sangakkara mould, as opposed to slosher. Plus, he is young so if he can settle in quickly, then that is a gap plugged for the foreseeable future -- with the younger, and equally talented, Ajay Ratra still left as fallback option.

Equally, the decision to pick Shiv Sundar Das needs applause. The Indian team has three possible openers in Tendulkar, Ganguly and Sehwag -- but Das forced his way in by sheer weight of form and recent runs. The fact that he is going with the ODI squad comes with a double benefit -- for one, he is going to be a key player in Tests and this gives him oodles of time to get used to the conditions. And for another, the fact that you have a technically correct opener who can cope with pace means there is an option in case Tendulkar's toe acts up, Ganguly's form goes down, or Sehwag falls victim to some act of man or god.

Another item worth noting is the fact that Wright felt it necessary to talk to Javagal Srinath, and to tell the senior seam bowler that here on in, he can't pick and chose when he will play and when he will not.

For quite some time now, Srinath has been opting out of ODIs on the grounds that he is saving himself for the Tests -- Sri Lanka being the latest instance. And then the Tests come along and early into the series, Srinath finds he lacks rhythm, and fitness. What ensued was a nightmare first spell in the first Test at Galle -- and by the time he got his rhythm back a bit, he was back home resting from another injury.

With contracts now coming into play, the senior players become paid professionals -- and that means that, as in the case of English players Alec Stewart and Darren Gough, the Indian board, and the coach, are quite right in insisting that they behave as professionals, and do duty as and when required.

The real fun -- for Ganguly, Dravid, and Wright -- begin when they sit down to pick the playing eleven. How would that read?

Tendulkar and Ganguly to open, if only because they are the settled combo and it would be a shame to break it up without valid reason? Or Sehwag to partner Tendulkar (given their size and other similarities, it'll be great fun watching commentators try to tell the other from which) with Ganguly dropping down the order a touch?

The latter option actually sounds the better one -- Sehwag would be infinitely more lethal at the top, during the field restrictions, than he would be later on. And Ganguly, by the same token, can avoid the threat of early dismissal against the new ball and come in to the middle given that in the past, he has been particularly lethal against the older, softer ball.

So you have Tendulkar, Sehwag, Laxman (who would be on trial, definitely, for the number three slot following recent failures and the injury), Dravid, Ganguly.

Number six would be an all-rounder, but which? Yuvraj Singh and Retinder Singh Sodhi are both brilliant fielders, there is nothing to chose between them. With the bat, both are hard hitters -- with Yuvraj being the more flamboyant, as opposed to Sodhi being the more focussed, ergo, 'reliable'. With the ball, Sodhi delivers seam-up stuff -- a huge plus on the sub-continent, whereas you would need to ask if it may not come across as cannon fodder on the true, pacy South African wickets where medium pace with an old ball is asking for trouble. It is here Yuvraj has the edge -- his controlled left arm spin would form the ideal compliment to the regular spinners, more so against a Protean outfit that is not exactly world leaders in playing the turning ball.

So for the sake of argument you pencil in Yuvraj at six, Deep Das Gupta immediately fills the number seven slot.

That leaves four. And the question is, does the team management go with two pace and two spin?

If yes, the two spinners immediately pick themselves, and Harbhajan the free spirit bats at eight ahead of Kumble at nine. But which two seamers follow them? Srinath is the 'senior' bowler and Indian cricket like Indian bureaucracy puts a premium on 'seniority' -- but against that, Zaheer Khan if fully fit is the quickest of the four, and Nehra (again assuming full fitness) easily the most controlled and lethal, early on with his ability to bend it back or take it away from left and right-hander alike, and later with his indipping yorkers.

So I'd tend to pencil in the latter two for the last batting slots, Srinath being held in reserve for grounds and pitches where three seamers are dictated. Then, you have a team with two regular seamers and Ganguly as backup, plus two regular spinners plus Yuvraj as fifth bowler and Sehwag and Tendulkar as sixth. Fair enough.

But when you get to a seamier, pacier ground and decide you want three seamers, which spinner are you going to drop? The 'senior', or the relative rookie? Do you go for the accuracy of Kumble, or the variation and aggression of Harbhajan (with his barnstorming batting as makeweight?)

Nice little puzzle for the team management to crack -- and as they ponder the possibilities, they just might get to thinking heck, leading a half-strength team might have its headaches, but that is nothing to leading a full-strength one.

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