India-England: Indian team for the Mohali Test

The Indian team management under Dravid and Chappell is by far the best India has ever had. I just read the news about the 12 for the second Test. VVS, Kaif, Sreesanth are out from the playing 11, while Piyush Chawla, RP Singh, Yuvraj and Munaf Patel are in the 12. Notice that all the four replacements are very young and have a bright future ahead provided they perform. While Kaif should consider himself extremely unlucky, Sreesanth’s is a fitness issue.

The third change, VVS, is clearly a “daring” move. Hats off to the team management for this bold step. VVS is easily a top notch Indian test player, but the truth is that he has not performed exceptionally for quite a while now and two youngsters Yuvraj and Kaif have been fighting for a middle order spot for quite sometime. With Ganguly out of the way, the message to VVS must have been loud and clear, “perform or you might find yourself on the chopping block”. If VVS had scored runs in the Nagpur Test one can say with a fair degree of confidence that he might not have been dropped. If Yuvraj scores big in the Mohali Test and with Kaif looking very good, VVS might find himself out of the 15 for the third Test. And this could mean the beginning of the end for his Test career unlss of course this change results in India losing the Mohali Test.

On the bowling front, I suspect India will opt for a three seamer attack and give Bhajji another chance to prove that he is still a force. Alternately, they might experiment with Piyush Chawla in place of Bhajji given the Piyush can bat as well. (I think Bhajji will be given a rest and Piyush a break).

In any case, I think its very likely that Munaf will make the playing 11. A five man bowling attack seems certain unlike the first Test where India went in overly optimistic about its spinners abilities. Full marks to the Indian team management for making these bold moves.