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Squad a pointer to World Cup composition

S. Dinakar

ADDING VARIETY:Piyush Chawla has a potent googly and could be an attacking option in ODIs.

Chennai: The Indian squad for the five-match One-Day International series and the Twenty20 international game in South Africa is a clear pointer to the composition of the side for the ICC World Cup.

The wise men have picked 16 players for the limited-over campaign in South Africa. This will be reduced to 15 for the World Cup.

While maestro Sachin Tendulkar makes an expected return to one-day cricket — his last ODI innings was a barrier-breaking unbeaten 200 against South Africa at Gwalior — paceman Ishant Sharma and left-arm spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja do not find a place.

Different conditions

From an ODI perspective, a series in South Africa ahead of the World Cup is hardly the right preparation; the conditions could be vastly different. But then, the selectors would want a settled combination for the premier ODI competition.

Under the circumstances, Piyush Chawla's return needs to be welcomed. The leg-spinner will be an attacking option since he has a potent googly — the delivery spinning into the batsman can be quite effective.

In several respects, the 21-year-old Chawla is a lot like Mushtaq Ahmed. The former leg-spinner from Pakistan too relied more on his wrong 'un and was extremely successful in ODIs.

To his credit, Chawla has been working on his leg-spin as well and does turn the ball away from the bat in a more pronounced fashion these days. He will add variety to the attack.

More fizz

Importantly, Chawla has the fizz off the pitch — so essential for a leg-spinner — that can disrupt a batsman's footwork. It is here that he scores over his leg-spinning rival Amit Mishra, who is a tad slow off the track.

Chawla's ODI record is a fair one. In 21 matches, he has 28 wickets at 32.55. Considering that leg-spinners can prove expensive, his economy rate of 4.96 does not reflect adversely on his bowling. His last ODI appearance for India was in 2008.

Spin will be a weapon on the sub-continental tracks and picking three specialist men in Harbhajan Singh, R. Ashwin and Chawla for the World Cup will certainly add depth and options to the side. Chawla's free-spirited batting is often under-rated.

Ishant ignored

Moving from spin to pace, Ishant's omission indicates he may not be in the scheme of things for the World Cup.

Considering India's premier pace bowler Zaheer Khan is grappling with injury concerns, the selectors are likely to pick another left-armer in Ashish Nehra as cover.

Nehra, arguably India's best bowler at the death, has 28 wickets from 20 ODIs at 31.96 in 2010.

Taking into account that he often bowls in the end overs, Nehra's economy rate of 5.76 is not to be scoffed at. He does possess a telling yorker.

Munaf Patel, deservedly, holds on to his place. Apart from Zaheer, no Indian paceman has operated with as much control as Munaf has done in 2010 — in six ODIs he has seven wickets at 24.85 (economy rate 3.86).

He is a compelling seam bowler who can send down leg and off-cutters with precision and bounce, bowl close to the off-stump, and deny width to the batsmen.

Swing bowlers

S. Sreesanth, an aggressive out-swing bowler who can reverse it when the ball gets older, can be an asset in big games. This said, Praveen Kumar, a swing bowler with clever changes in pace, could be vying with Sreesanth for a place in the World Cup squad.

In 2010, Sreesanth has 16 wickets in 10 games at 34.18 (economy rate 6.93) against Praveen's 19 in 14 matches at 29.10 (economy rate 6.93).

However, unlike Praveen, Sreesanth did not get an opportunity to bowl at Dambulla, which was a seamer's paradise.

The squad for the series in South Africa has eight batsmen including M.S. Dhoni and batting all-rounder Yusuf Pathan. And the team has five pacemen and three spinners.

In the 15 for the World Cup, either a pace bowler or a spinner could be omitted.

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