Weak India selectors need to make Kohli king

It’s time the Indian team selectors took some strong decisions when it comes to picking a squad. The trend has always been to play safe, refusing to take any radical decisions. Any country with a plan to build a strong team for the future must not go by sentiments. Very often the selection of a team is a compromise fearing that strong decisions could ruffle feathers.

Many believe it’s time Virat Kohli leads the limited over teams too. It’s a fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni has lost his Midas touch and the team has been losing matches regularly under his leadership. Introducing Kohli as captain when Dhoni is still around as a player to guide him would help the team as well as Kohli. Unfortunately, Indian selectors dare not do this for the fear that the decision could backfire. It is in situations like these that the Australian team selectors should be lauded. They take decisions based on the requirements of the team for the future.

The Twenty20 Indian team for the Australian tour could have been better. Yuvraj Singh’s selection is a big gamble. It speaks volumes of Yuvraj’s determination to continue to remain in contention even at the age of 34 after fighting cancer. Whether he will exhibit the same form that he did at the age of 26 when he won the Twenty20 World Cup for India and the 50-over World Cup at the age of 30 remains to be seen.

There is no harm in selecting players who may not be around for long; but selectors must make sure that youngsters like Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson, who are the players for the future, are introduced too. If that is not done, whoever the Indian captain is, he may soon find himself leading a squad of inexperienced players, and he could be forced to comment that his team is going through a rebuilding process. In modern cricket there is no place for such excuses and it is up to the selectors to ensure the team keeps winning by introducing promising players at the right time.

India’s performance in the Twenty20 format has been very poor, and it has slipped to seventh position in the world ranking. Test playing nations like New Zealand, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the only ones below them. Even newcomers Afghanistan are closing in at tenth position.

Ageing warhorses like Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj have an onerous task to prove their worth in Australia. Dhoni too needs to ensure that the 50-over and Twenty20 series is won in Australia as a morale booster for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup.