The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Waiting to meet the challenge

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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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Sport - Cricket

Waiting to meet the challenge

G. Viswanath

Focus on Chawla, Sreesanth and Sehwag

Mumbai: Piyush Chawla successfully executed a ‘bosey’ bluff on Sachin Tendulkar under lights at Mohali in the Challenger Trophy two years ago. Tendulkar saw the ball turn from off and hit the stumps. Experts were quick to predict a bright career for the young leg spinner from Aligarh.

Not yet 19, Chawla has impressed in the limited opportunities, especially in England where his guile fetched him the wickets of Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood. Chawla is clearly being groomed as a potential replacement for Anil Kumble. Though Chawla’s task is cut out, there’s hope.

Two days before Chawla’s exploit against Tendulkar a seamer from Kothamangalam (Kerala), Shantakumaran Sreesanth, had his brush with fame at Mohali, trapping Tendulkar leg before.

Fearless

Former India Test bowler Abey Kuruvilla, who had some role to play in the development of Sreesanth, had said then that the Kerala seamer would soon play for India. Since that dismissal Sreesanth is close to establishing permanency in the Indian team. He has been fearless and has demonstrated skill, operating with the new and old ball.

Chawla and Sreesanth are two cases that indicate that the selectors give adequate importance to the Challenger Series. This year’s four-day competition starts at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera, from Thursday and there’s no gainsaying the fact the youngsters chosen in the three teams will be keen to make an impression.

The Challenger series will provide an opportunity for an out of form player like Virender Sehwag and also to the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Mohammad Kaif, Parthiv Patel and Munaf Patel to emerge with strong performances.

Sehwag, in the event of not coming good in this tournament, may have to spend the rest of the season in the domestic competition. The selectors will also be watching players like S. Badrinath and Rohit Sharma.

Among others who will try to catch the selectors’ attention are Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan, Anirudh Srikkanth, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli.

Dazzling century

Nayar began the home season with a dazzling century against Rest in the Irani Cup. Rahane made an impact in the last season’s Premier Cup and the likes of Pathan, Srikkanth, Kohli have all looked to keep themselves busy with the bat.

Apart from Munaf who roared to form in the second innings of the Irani Cup by picking five wickets, the others in action would be Ishant Sharma, Yomahesh, Ranadeb Bose, Pankaj Singh and Siddharth Trivedi. Then there are a few players, should they get a chance, like Baroda’s Pinal Shah, Punjab’s Ravneet Ricky and Uttar Pradesh’s Praveen Kumar who would be just as keen.

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