The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Chance for Test hopefuls to prove their mettle

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Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Chance for Test hopefuls to prove their mettle

By Rakesh Rao

MOHALI, SEPT. 21. With some of country's leading performers busy searching for their lost form, it is just the right time for the aspirants to come good in the Irani Cup match beginning here on Wednesday to stake their claims ahead of the forthcoming home series against Australia and South Africa.

Both Rest of India and Mumbai have a fair number of players who are either trying to regain their India berths or make it for the first time. However, the optimism of the hopefuls is based on the assumption that the National selectors would like take a different path and not to opt for the beaten track.

Ironically, in the last two Test series, in Australia and Pakistan, India's batting came good and obviously there was neither any need nor room to experiment with newcomers. However, the form of some of the batsmen and injury to Sachin Tendulkar has suddenly given the selectors some urgent work.

Pressure on Chopra

The opening combination of Virender Sehwag and Akash Chopra has done better than any other combination in the past few years. Still, Sourav Ganguly triggered off a debate by publicly announcing his desire to include Yuvraj Singh in the Test team at the cost of Chopra.

This had made Sehwag come out strongly in support of Chopra. The last word on the subject was not been said. Needless to say, Chopra will be under added pressure to prove a point all over again for no apparent fault.

The threat to Chopra's slot comes not only Ganguly's statement but also from the presence of fellow-Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir and Mumbai's Vinayak Mane.

In the middle-order, too, the hopefuls see some room following Tendulkar's injury and V.V.S. Laxman's loss of touch. Considering Laxman's long list of huge scores on home pitches, particularly the 281 that led to a historic series win against Australia at the Eden Gardens in 2001, the elegant batsman can be expected to shake off the current form and come good one more time.

With Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif high on the waiting list, at the most one lucky middle-order batsman may be considered to be part of the India dressing room. The in-form left-handers Dinesh Mongia and S. Sriram will have to get it right to get another look in.

Zaheer Khan's fitness will be assessed like never before. With the pitch and conditions here are known to assist swing and seam bowlers, Avishkar Salvi, Munaf Patel and Shiv Shankar Paul would like to make the most of the opportunity.

Kartik has good chance

Among the spinners, left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule and Ramesh Powar will try to remind the selectors that they deserve another chance to don the National colours. With Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble holding on to their places, Kartik has a better chance, as compared to Bahutule and Powar, of making the National squad. But for that to happen, Kartik will have to really turn things around for his team this week.

Though Bahutule did say Mumbai was keen to regain the Irani Cup, the focus in the present circumstances on individual performances. Surprisingly, no one is too keen to speculate on the probable winner of this once-prestigious encounter.

The teams:

Rest of India: Dinesh Mongia, Akash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, S. Sriram, A.T. Rayudu, Parthiv Patel, Murali Kartik, Shiv Shankar Paul, Zaheer Khan, Yogesh Golwalkar, Y. Venugopal Rao, Joginder Sharma and Sidharth Trivedi.

Mumbai: Sairaj Bahutule (captain), Vinod Kambli, Wasim Jaffar, Bhavin Thakkar, Vinayak Samant, Amol Muzumdar, Ramesh Powar, Avishkar Salvi, Swapnil Hazare, Nilesh Kulkarni, Robin Morris, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Vinit Indulkar and Rohit Sharma.

Umpires: Messrs I. Sivaram (Hyderabad) and A.V. Jayaprakash (Karnataka). Match Referee: Mr. S.K. Bansal.

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