No rest any time soon for Dhoni

The final of the Kitply Cup is almost certainly going to be India v someone else, unless India crash to defeat by an inconceivable margin of more than 218 runs against Bangladesh on Thursday. It provides the team management with the ideal opportunity to give tired squad members a break, provide opportunities to new faces, and tinker with team combination.

The usual argument in favour of rest and rotation is that of player burnout, the packed international schedule made even more demanding by the Indian Premier League. It is a valid point for India's one-day outfit was involved in a long tri-series in Australia before the IPL. Some of them even played the home Tests against South Africa in energy-sapping heat. Weather conditions in Dhaka are humid and future fixtures - the Asia Cup in Pakistan and the tour of Sri Lanka - will be equally taxing. A counter-argument is that the squad is young and most of the players can meet the demands. That may be true but all these matches add up and eventually a player may have to take a forced break. Prevention is better than the proverbial cure.

The other argument for rotation is to gradually increase experience levels of the bench strength by giving them international exposure. Only then will they be able to slot in seamlessly if one of the regular 11 picks up an injury.

"I think that's the reason the selectors have chosen a pretty young side for this tournament," Gary Kirsten, the India coach, said. "It's going to be important as we move on in the years to have a group of 15-20 players, who are equally good enough to play for India. With the demands on the players and the heat that they play in, we are going to have to rest players. We're going to have to think carefully about how we do that."

Two players who have strong cases for rest are Ishant Sharma and Mahendra singh Dhoni. Ishant has been a precious addition to India's fast bowling arsenal, a rare fast bowler who can unsettle the batsman with pace, and his value to the Test team is far greater than what he offers to the one-day side. Ishant missed the first two Tests against South Africa because of injury but recovered for the third, after which he played 13 out of 14 Twenty20 games for the Kolkata Knight Riders. During India's Kitply Cup opener against Pakistan, Ishant showed discomfort when his knee hit the ground after completing a catch. Perhaps deploying his skills in Tests and key one-day fixtures is the way forward. Resting him once in a while will give newcomers like Manpreet Gony the chance to make it on the international circuit.

The other player who, in public opinion at least, seems in need of a break is Dhoni. Before the home series against South Africa began, he had played 47 one-dayers, 11 Tests and eight Twenty20s - 105 days of international cricket - in a span of 15 months. Since then he played all three Tests against South Africa and the entire IPL though he did not keep wicket for the majority of the tournament because of a finger injury.

However, after the win against Pakistan on Tuesday, Dhoni said the hectic playing schedule had to be accepted. "It is part and parcel of our profession," he said. "Till you are fit, you will love to play this game. You get addicted to it. For a cricketer no other addiction is bigger than playing cricket."

Kirsten, however, said there is a longer plan. "We are going to look at every player individually and see if there's an opportunity for him to be rested. It's a long year so we'll look at opportunities [for resting players] through the year. At this stage there is no plan from MS's [Dhoni] side to rest. He's very keen to captain this one-day team and take it to more success. So there's nothing planned as yet."

That Dhoni wasn't keen on resting was evident from the squads chosen for the Kitply and Asia Cups. With Dinesh Karthik being dropped, Dhoni is the only wicketkeeper in the squad, which means he is likely to play each and every game. That is, unless, he picks up an injury.