Sharandeep's exclusion is a shocker

I am writing this after attending the first leg of the coaching seminar conducted by the National Cricket Academy at the KSCA premises. The seminar was fantastic on many counts. It gave an insight into the Australian method of subjecting the contracted players to a stern preparation for the long cricketing season. The people who delivered lectures included Rodney Marsh, Brian Taber, psychologist Sandy Gordon, Indian team physio Andrew Leipus and ACB coach Wayne Philips.

Gordon's talk on mental skills was superb and his mental toughness drills showed tremendous planning. The physical conditioning lecture by Leipus was equally good. He admitted that the Indian team was very supple and flexible whereas the Aussies were comparitively very stiff. If the exercise was any yardstick I am quite confident the Indian team is very well tuned for the series ahead. The only thing that remains to be seen is the gameplan.

I am rather surprised about the inclusion of Hirwani in the Indian team. I am not too sure if his rhythm is back but even then it is a bad choice. Sharandeep Singh's dropping is a shocker. My guess is the Indian captain and selectors expected the debutant to win the match against Zimbabwe! If these are the expectations, God only can help Indian cricket.

Now that the team is announced, my guess is the playing eleven will have all three spinners, two fast bowlers in Srinath and Agarkar, the keeper Mongia and five batsmen Das, Ramesh, Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly. As for the spinners, Sanghvi does not turn the ball enough, Hirwani is not too sure of his length and Harbhajan is still trying to establish himself. I am totally confused. Thank God I am not leading this team. If this were to happen I would have gone crazy.

With this attack John Wright's problem is figuring the kind of field they bowl to. Mumbai bowled to an off-side field since they had the left armer Kulkarni and leg spinner Bahutule both turning the ball away from the right hander. From the old days, the Mumbai players are well versed in packing the off-side but they are not sure how to set an on-side field. For Harbhajan, an on-side field would be in order, perhaps forward short leg, short mid-on and mid-wicket for a start. By the way, Bishen and I met John Wright during the seminar. We have suggested a system of field placements. Let's see whether this has been passed onto the captain. I for one would be watching the first Test closely for more reasons than one.

I think the team batting first has the best chance of forcing a result. It may be seen from the tour games that if the wickets are flat and slow, India should consistently be putting up 350 plus on the board which gives them the handle to take control. But the Indians will find it difficult to come back into the series if they lose the opening Test. Indeed I believe India's best chance of winning the series lies in preparing placid wickets for the first two games and going flat out in the final encounter at Chennai.