Breaking the mould

Twenty20 cricket would give a lot of people, some of whom would otherwise have never made it, a chance to play international cricket, Kumar Sangakkara said in a recent interview. His words appeared to be borne out when India announced a squad of 30 probables for September's Twenty20 World Championship. With Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly excusing themselves - and they should be commended for doing so - the job of the selectors became that much easier.

This will be the first time in years that India are going into a tournament of any kind without the big three, and it remains to be seen if this is an indication of the selectors' long-term thinking, or whether it's just an exception for Twenty20 cricket. The selectors picked a squad heavy on youth, and understandably light on experience.

But the inexperience won't matter a jot, for none of India's cricketers has played much Twenty20 cricket. Dinesh Mongia, with 32 games under his belt, is far and away the most experienced, but he has been overlooked. Murali Kartik, who has played a bit of Twenty20 himself, for Lancashire and Middlesex - only yesterday he picked up 5 for 13, the third-best returns in the short history of this form of the game - also missed out.

It's hard to judge this squad of 30 because so little is known about what they can do at Twenty20 cricket. But it is a major opportunity for some of these young cricketers to get a taste of the big league. It's still some way yet - the selectors have made a good start in picking the 30, but they could easily regress when it comes to pruning down the squad to 15 and leave out many of the really young ones, settling for safety instead.

There are many familiar faces - Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag - but interestingly there are fresh ones too. Yusuf Pathan has made a bit of a name for himself as an offie who can tonk the ball a long distance, and more than mere potential has some performances to back his claims up, and joins his brother Irfan in the squad. Karan Goel the twenty-year-old left-hand bat and offie who scored 26 and took 4 for 13 as Punjab lost to Tamil Nadu in the final of the domestic Twenty20 championship, finds a spot.

Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, although quite a correct batsman, makes it, along with Manoj Tiwary, both from Bengal, and his electric fielding would be a big plus. Chetweshwar Pujara, another young batsman of promise, though hardly a man you'd pick for Twenty20, is in the squad too, as is Niraj Patel, the industrious left-hand batsman from Gujarat who has scored regularly and played a key role in finishing off limited overs games. Praveen Kumar, the allrounder gets in for his utility with bat and ball, as does Orissa's Niranjan Behera, while Anirudh Srikkanth, a dasher to the core, is one of those who could play a big part if he gets going.

One person the selectors should have found place for, at least in the long-list of 30, is V Devendra, the Twenty20 specialist from Tamil Nadu. His played a crucial part in Tamil Nadu's success in the domestic competition with his fearless hitting at the top of the order and steady mediumpace.

What's critical is to see how the selectors go about their business when they halve this squad on August 7. If they go with those who have built reputations in one-day cricket, and send the out-and-out youngsters back to domestic cricket, they would have missed a trick. In order to help the selectors pick the final 15 the Board of Control for Cricket in India will probably have to schedule its inter-zonal Twenty20 competition between now and then, and that promises to be a hastily arranged affair.

While most of the attention has centred on the Twenty20 probables, what with a World Championship around the corner, it should not escape notice that the selectors also picked an A team to tour Kenya. In that squad are some seriously contentious choices, with Arjun Yadav getting a look in despite achieving little in domestic cricket. An opening batsman like M Vijay, who had an excellent debut season, scoring 628 runs at 40-plus will wonder why he misses out, in a squad that has only one regular opener, in Robin Uthappa. This at a time when India have a fairly new opening combination in Tests and are on the look out for openers. Once again, it seems a confused selection, with a wicketkeeper opening, but given what they've done with the national team in the recent past, you'd at least have to say the selectors are consistent.