This eagerness was even more last week when the national selection committee met to announce the Indian squad for the two tests against Zimbabwe at home. The inadequacies of the side had been clearly exposed in the test and one day series against England and there was a dire need on the part of the ‘wise men’ to address them appropriately by making some bold decisions and ringing in the necessary changes. 

But all hopes of any tough measures stood dashed when chairman of selectors Chandu Borde announced the panel’s squad of fourteen – a squad that seemed to have been chosen as if the selectors had forgotten to watch the England series or even if they had they found nothing wrong in any department of the team.

Let’s get this straight. India might – and should – defeat Zimbabwe convincingly with the team selected by Borde & co. But surely the larger picture must assume more importance; long-term goals mustn’t be ignored for immediate gains. This is exactly where the selectors have gone horribly wrong –  they’ve decided that winning two matches against one of the lowest ranking test teams in the world is more important than building a team which in the future should be able to tackle the best.

Selecting a cricket team, as former Aussie captain Ian Chappell once said, is a reasonably straightforward task. Six or may be even seven players generally select themselves, either due to past record or recent performances. As a selector you really only have to fill in the remaining five slots. One would imagine that the best way to go about this is to first look at what the needs of the team are, where its shortcomings lie and then go ahead and select the best players to plug these gaps.

This logic has totally eluded the Indian selectors yet again. Any cricket follower in the country would be able to spell out the three basic needs of the Indian cricket team – a solid specialist opening batsman for test matches, an all rounder who is more than just a bits and pieces cricketer and a specialist wicket keeper who can bat a bit. These holes in the team have been asking to be filled for some time now but even after a series where they were exploited to the hilt by inferior opponents the selectors have found no reason for action. Instead an essentially middle order batsman continues to double up as opener and wicket keeper and there is still no genuine all rounder in the team. What makes it all the more ridiculous and illogical is that the wider pool from which the final squad was chosen includes several players who fit these requirements. But their names, as we were subsequently informed, only “came up for discussion”.

Take the case of Ajay Ratra for instance. Ratra made what I believe was a spectacular debut in the one day series against England, showing good hands behind the stumps and a solid head on his young shoulders batting down the order in tense situations. All that his performance and promise earned him though was the sack for the Zimbabwe test series and a consolation from the selectors as being “a good wicket keeper”. So it was comeback time for Bengal’s Deep Dasgupta who is without doubt a capable batsman but whose skills behind the stumps are embarrassing at the international level. The explanation from Borde was that Dasgupta is “a better batsman” and that Ratra “was given a chance in the one day series”. The fact is that Dasgupta cannot qualify on the strength of his batting ability alone, and his wicket keeping is just too much of a liability to play him. Also if one series is all that the selectors required to judge Ratra, then we must be thankful that they were not in the saddle when Sachin Tendulkar made his debut. 

Apart from Ratra, it would be no surprise if players like Reetinder Sodhi, Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer feel aggrieved at the treatment handed out to them. Sodhi has proved himself at the international level in the few opportunities he has received, with some doughty batting, tenacious bowling and energetic fielding. But this earned him the label of ‘one-day specialist’, almost as if all rounders cannot play test cricket. He subsequently found himself completely out of favour with the selectors and was relegated back to the rigours domestic cricket. As for openers Jaffer and Gambhir, no amount of runs piled up in the last couple of seasons at the domestic level has been enough to get them a place in the Indian side. The former is known to have a solid technique and a rare appetite for big scores while the latter must have thought that a double century for the Board President’s XI against Zimbabwe last fortnight would be enough to win him a look-in for the tests. But instead, the selectors chose to have a make-shift opener in Dasgupta, who incidentally has had most of his success for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy batting at number four. As former India bat Dileep Vengsarkar points out “If you don’t try specialist openers against Zimbabwe then when will you?”

One doubts that the selectors even thought of that. Or perhaps they feel that the right time to experiment is before the World Cup next year. Or maybe they are scared that we might lose to Zimbabwe and it’s wiser to play safe. Or perhaps the real reason is that they’re concerned that in the rare event of the Indian team actually becoming a world-class unit, someone might believe they had a hand in it. They needn’t worry – with their wonderfully inconsistent and short sighted selection policies this team doesn’t stand a chance.