Is this 'five man army' reliable?

By dropping experienced seamers from the list of probables list, it seems the selectors are taking a chance to find someone suitable to replace the ageing war horses - Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad. If the first name pulled out of playing one-day internationals, the omission of Prasad has come as a surprise as he had bowled well in the recent Sharjah tournament.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly expressed similar sentiments in an interview to a web site. He said ``Yes, but I was a little surprised with the omission of Venkatesh Prasad.'' and added ``he bowled well in Sharjah during the tri-nation tournament in March too.'' The question is whether the five seamers chosen for the camp for the forthcoming Asia Cup are capable of turning potential match winners? Can an inconsistent Ajit Agarkar shoulder the responsibility of the new ball.

The other surprising selection is Thirunavukarasu Kumaran who gets the nod after being dropped following the South African series. This season Kumaran has played in six first-class matches claiming 19 wickets at an average of 26.42 with 6/39 as his best. He has been in and out of the Indian side and missed many domestic matches as he was on national duty. In which case one wonders why then was he dropped from the team earlier. In this side he is the second most experienced seamer to share the new ball with Agarkar.

The selectors seem to have faith in the ability of the Delhi medium pacer Amit Bhandari. The 21 year-old Bhandari has been in and out of the team without being given an opportunity to prove his mettle. The last time this Delhi allrounder was selected was for the first three one dayers against South Africa. He was dumped from the side and replaced by Srinath for the last two one dayers and the subsequent tri-nation series at Sharjah. Will this Asia Cup see this man make a mark or will he be just a tourist?

The prize catch of the season has been the star of the under-19 World Cup - Reetinder Singh Sodhi. The 19 year old Punjab allrounder deserves to be in the squad for his impressive performance both with the ball and the bat. Sodhi has scored 803 runs at an average of 44.61 in 12 matches and picked up 29 wickets at an impressive average of 23.41. Sodhi is the answer to the allrounder crisis in the squad.

The surprise in this lot is Zaheer Khan. The 21 year old left-arm seamer from Baroda has had a decent run with the ball picking up 42 wickets this season. One has the feeling that he has been included in the list of probables to provide some variety, being a left hander.

Finally, its good to see that the selectors have started thinking about the future and are in the process of finding suitable replacements for the Karnataka duo. But they could have done this retaining the experienced Prasad. It looks as though the chances of making it into the Asia Cup finals is lost even before the team lands at Dhaka.