The Indian squad for Asia Cup to be played in Bangladesh has been announced and as speculated the selector did have some surprises in store for the country. The side saw some unexpected inclusions and omission.
The team which is currently playing in Australia had a tour to forget, barring their last match where they chased 320 within 37 overs against Sri Lanka. After such a horrendous tour Down Under, the side selected should have looked different but the selection committee chaired by Krisnamachari Srikkanth did not as he did not want to upset the losing combination.

The squad selected does not justify anything and their motive of preparing a team for the next World Cup seems just a lame excuse for the selectors to swing the sword to their whims and fancies.

The board is not quite sure and their vision to make the team ready for World Cup seems very vague. The team selected feature most of the players that were part of the Australia tour baring Virender Sehwag who the board claims to have rested and Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav who are allegedly down with injuries. The decision of the selectors raised some eyebrows and does not justify any of their thoughts.

Let just run down few points as to why the team that has been selected is not justified and really requires a second thought.

The first and foremost is the making Virat Kohli the second in command to Dhoni. How could the selectors do something like that to Gautam Gambhir who has been serving the team for so long and has more experience than Kohli? An innings and that was all to give him such a big reward. Gambhir led the team to so many wins and also played a pivotal role during the World Cup finals and the epic run chase against Sri Lanka few days back. He had been consistently performing for the country and experience he has makes him an ideal choice for the role of vice captain. But the selectors thought otherwise and rewarded Kohli.

Kohli is no doubt a talent and has been the most consistent batsman in recent times for India. But then he still does qualify for the post ahead of Gambhir. There might me many reasons as to why Gambhir never got the post. The selectors might have considered his proximity with Sehwag and must have feared a revolt. Or might be he spoke about Dhoni’s batting in public. There might be a lot off field reasons but passing on the baton to Kohli and not Gambhir is a very biased move and it was not the right thing to do. This would see the players losing out on motivation and also give rise to insecurity. Well what has been done can’t be undone but selectors should avoid favoritism is they really keep the team in a good or else it would not take much for Indian Team to walk in the lines of Pakistan Team.

Secondly retaining Suresh Raina and Rohit, two biggest failures of the Australian tour is a move that has left most people puzzled. Why Raina and Rohit who were miserable throughout the summer, barring the last match when Raina showed some resiliency.  There are players who are playing exceptionally well on the domestic circuit and they should have been tried on the less hostile conditions in Bangladesh. The move surely did have Dhoni’s influence and no chance in hell would any selector retain Raina and Rohit after such disastrous show. Raina plays good on sub-continent, but his current performance shows that he can’t play at all. And by the way why should he be selected on a speculating terms that he might come good in Bangladesh, taking into consideration his sub-continent record. This question demands an answer but the answer is hard to come by when the regime of the current board is more like a tyranny and nothing can dare to cross their line.

Thirdly why Yusuf Pathan? Did he not disappoint enough that he has come back again? Why not try some fresh talent, eying 2015.

The team selected is not the ideal team and how much the selectors try and hide it will never be able to justify the selection. All that the nation would pray is that the brunt of this faulty selection is not bore by the nation which is filled with millions of cricket fanatics.