Sehwag down the order?

Read a couple of reports that the team management is worried with Sehwag's contribution in ODIs and is considering moving him down the order since he seems to fritter away his starts most of the times.

Well, this theory has been part of the Chuckster's blog for a long time now ... take Sehwag down the order, said the Chuckster so many times, didn't he? Seriously guys, Sehwag and Dhoni down the order could give India a devastating punch down the order which probably could only be matched by Klusener in the Cronje era. I am not advocating this shift for Sehwag just till the time he gets his touch back or whatever they think is wrong with him ... I am advocating this as a standard practice ... specially with the new rules coming into the picture from the next tournament onward, a Sehwag down the order with the field in could wreck havoc ... the simple point being the bowlers won't be so fresh and neither will be the ball.

Of course that opens up the question as to who should open ... as long as Ganguly is playing, I am under no doubt that he takes one spot ... once SRT comes back, I guess he will take the other ... as for now, hey ... have fun ... send Dravid up and see what happens. The opposition is only gonna be zimbabwe, for chris sakes. Even send in Yuveraj or JP ... whoever goes, I am certain in my mind that once SRT comes back, they would be out of the opening slot ... so just have fun while it lasts.

I just hope they don't send Dhoni to open. In addition to smashing my Sehwag / Dhoni combination down below, it would really be no better than Sehwag as far as any consistency goes.

Rumblings in the Indian team, indeed! Kumble going so far as to remark - "it seems it is always the Laxmans and the Anils who r dropped .... " or words to that effect. With Sehwag piping his "Ganguly is the best choice" chant, seems like the famed Team India is not so closely knit after all. Greg Chappell better take a hand in this pretty soon else things will get ugly.

Finally one thought to end this post with. Though I have had great admiration for Ganguly's abilility in picking and backing "his" players, I also thought he sometimes went too far in playing God ... a Yuveraj can get a 100 chances but a Ramesh cannot ... a Murali Karthik or Debashis Mohanty don't get a look in but a Zaheer and Nehra can always pop back whenever they want. A Yuveraj can be shoved into the test team but a Laxman cannot be accomodated in the ODI team.

Backing players is good ... blocking those he feels r not good enough is another thing altogether ... and I have felt that Gangs has been guilty of doing that ... once everyone starts talking about Ganguly's boys and Ganguly's team, maybe he started to believe the hype. Now with Chappell as coach, I expect Ganguly's boys to pull their weight or get chucked out on their ear without the "mai baap" to protect their ass ... and that includes Ganguly himself ... before Chappell became coach, there was only one boss where Indian cricket was concerned ... that was Ganguly .... even Wright was just a second in command with no right to demand anything the captain didn't want. Now, in my own mind, I am sure the equations have changed. The boss is not Ganguly but Chappell ... and that is good ... coz in the end, Ganguly becomes accountable after around 4 years of having no one to answer to. The other ten players were always accountable ... Ganguly as captain could just survive without performance ... no longer. No clearer evidence to this than his getting appointed for only the next series.

With Chappell in charge it is clear ... the results have to show him in a good light ... he has too much of a reputation to defend. Yes, SL has not given sparling results but then when one has a long term vision, these things happen. People curse the results of the day ... they don't realize the base which is being built ... something that will become evident only after some time. When the RP Singhs and the Venugopals and the Suresh Rainas have all be evaluated and the Yuverajs and Zaheers been sifted inside out.

Many people r despondent after the SL series ... me, I am looking forward to the next one just coz SL has let me know things will never be the same with Indian cricket. It is bound to be interesting.

Cheers

The Chuckster