Feb 9, 2007
B D Narayankar
Bangalore: Though Robin Uthappa has been humble about his chances for being picked up in the Indian squad for the World Cup, the national selection committee has almost reached at a consensus to include him in the side.
Uthappa’s chances became better when he exhibited the rare talent of pounding mericilessly the West Indies fast bowlers to all over the park and scripting a swashbuckling 70 runs in 41 balls at Chepuak. Though the Karnataka dasher failed to get a big one under his belt in Vadodara, his short and sweet innings of 28 runs showed him in good stead and looked confident.
Apart from these two confident-looking innings, the failure of Gautam Gambhir to score runs in the last two one-day matches against West Indies has increased Robin’s prospects for cementing a place in the national squad for the World Cup, a national selector told this blogger.
Gambhir spilled his chances by not utilizing the opportunity, though getting a magnificent half-century in the first one-day match at Nagpur. ‘’If the dashing left-hander had some decent scores under his belt, he would have given a tough comptetition to Uthappa,’’ he said.
The selector also indicated that the squad would comprise six batsmen, two wicket-keepers, two specialist spinners and five pacemen, including the beleaguered Irfan Pathan.
Among the batsmen, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh pick themselves. There was uncertainty over the last spot. Sehwag’s record and match-winning ability make him the front-runner over Suresh Raina.
The composition could change if a player is injured, or found unfit. If Munaf Patel is unfit, he could be replaced by a paceman or off-spinner Ramesh Powar.
Dream Team
Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar (vc), Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan.
Benchers
Dinesh Karthick (wk), Munaf Patel, Ajit Agarkar and S Sreeshanth.
Eom\
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