The XI to take on the Ranji champs

The domestic season that kicked off with the Irani Trophy in October has run its course after six action packed months. While the established Test players hardly got in a match or two, a number of others, both young and old, discarded and untested, have been enjoying their place in the sun. An exercise in picking a playing eleven of the most compelling players of the season is bound to be fraught with danger. So here goes the disclaimer that this is a highly arbitrary and subjective choice. With Mumbai having won the Ranji Trophy, let me run up a Rest of India team, consisting of guys who've played some domestic cricket and played it well, that could probably challenge Mumbai on a more even footing than Hyderabad did.

Sridharan Sriram would have to figure at the top of the order. With five hundreds in his first seven matches, he was instrumental in giving Tamil Nadu's title hopes a major thrust forward. True he did not come off in the crunch match against Mumbai when Ajit Agarkar fired him out twice but he'd done enough until that point to justify a place. Reetinder Sodhi would be his ideal partner upfront. He certainly spills his guts all over the place and his bowling lends an additional option.

VVS Laxman at No.3 is a straightforward matter and there is no batsman in domestic cricket who cuts a more reliable figure as he trudges into the middle. You instinctively trust this man to deliver although its going to be a delicate task to infiltrate him into the Indian middle order. Next man in is 24-year-old Hemang Badani who started the season shakily, collecting a pair in one of the zonal matches, and being dropped for the Super League tie against Orissa. But he roared back with two hundreds and three fifties in his last six innings.

Mohd. Kaif has had his best season just yet, representing India A in the West Indies, captaining India U-19 to World Cup victory and getting a Test call-up against South Africa. In the midst of all this, he also played four Ranji matches, displaying his spunk with 66 & 86 in the quarter-final showdown against Hyderabad, almost saving UP's bacon in the process. Completing the top six is Mohd. Azharuddin who made a comeback at 37 to the national squad, primarily on account of his supreme fitness. Having captained in four domestic competitions this season, Ranji, Deodhar, Wills and the Challenger, Azhar has taken most of the boys in this team under his fold at some time or the other and should be the clear choice for captain.

That brings us to the slot No.7, traditionally occupied by the wicket keeper. It's also one of the trouble spots in the national side with as many as four occupants in the hot seat last season. I'd like to look at 22-year-old Thilak Naidu as a pretender. Playing as a specialist batsman for Karnataka until S Shiraguppi was dropped, Naidu displays much of the same nimble footwork behind the stumps as he does in front of it.The new ball would have to be shared by Venkatesh Prasad, who managed to pick a five wicket haul even on a depressingly unhelpful semifinal wicket and one of the Delhi youngsters Ashish Nehra or Amit Bhandari. Being a left armer, Nehra should be able to add greater variety to the attack. The spin department is quite adaquately stocked with offies and left armers but the leg spinner seems to be a vanishing breed. Kanwaljit and Raju have done a marvellous job for Hyderabad over the years and it is with a heavy heart that I pick Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik as the two slow men to complete the eleven.