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Uthappa, Joginder Sharma & RP for 1st & 2nd ODI vs WI : Pepsi CupFiled under
Ind vs WI
Have Australia finalised their final 15 for the World cup in March?
What about South Africa and Pakistan... or Sri Lanka and West Indies..??
The fact is - no one has. There are places to be grabbed in all major cricket playing teams for the Caribbean World Cup - and our Indian team is no different. Every team has round about 8 or 10 players fixed and remaining 5-6 places will be filled in coming 64 days from today. So does India. Every team is p  laying some kind of cricket these days,
and this player experimentation is on for each one of them. India vs
West Indies 4 ODI, and then India vs Sri Lanka 4 ODIs (to be called as
Pepsi Cup) is our chance to see who else fits in the scheme of things
as we try to win our second World Cup this year..!!What Robin Uthappa, Joginder Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Ramesh Powar and Suresh Raina must be telling themselves is that they are lucky to be banging on selectors door at the time of glory. This is the highest and hottest time for cricket and we breath Indians this game. If thse young cricketer have what it takes to perform at the highest level - show it now. Dinesh Karthik has done pretty well so far - but we might struggle to keep him if & when Yuvraj Singh comes back and proves form/fitness. If Kaarthik wants to play one day cricket for India - he has to show he can make consistant runs at International level... which I personally believe he is capable of. Dinesh is a "busy batsman", which means he wants to do something with every ball he faces - not like Dravid who is always prepared to leave the balls. Dinesh Karthik can be a real asset down the oder in the slog overs together with Dhoni and Irfan Pathan. Rudra Pratap Singh (RP Singh in short) and Ramesh Powar are proven talents but somehow luck hasn't served them well so far. I am not sure how much we need RP for World Cup, iff Irfan comes back, but we certainly need Ramesh Powar - if he can make a few more runs. Ramesh Powar is a very fine off spinner - probably the only conventional off-spinner in International cricket today, and he is never afraid to flight the ball. Even Inzamam couldn't hit him for regular sixes... I am sure no one else can. Ramesh Powar must be given his chances. Robin Uthappa & Gautam Gambhir have some more tricky life ahead of them. Because Indian top ODI order is nearly full with Ganguly coming back and Sehwag sure to be back. Even Dravid will hate to bat lower than No.4. Thus - the real vacancies are in middle oder - which requires hard hitting abilities. I would have loved had selectors given a chance to UP's Praveen Kumar. Praveen can swing the ball at an ok pace and always picks up wickets. Not to mention his six hitting abilities.  One name I am really happy to see is Joginder Sharma. He plays for Haryana and is the highest wicket-taker in Indian domestic cricket this year so far - 36 wickets 6 matches. They call him Kapil Dev of Haryana (Kapil played for the same state) and Joginder never fails to perform. Jaginder (age 23 years and 83 days) made his debut for Haryana in November 2004 and averages 33 with the bat. He has exceptional straight hitting abilities and then bowl at a speed of 135 km/hr. What makes his real wicket taker is his ability to swing the ball. Joginder Sharma is an out-swing bowler and West Indies is a place where the ball doesn't swing much. Hence, a bowler who has genuine swinging gift - will be an asset for the World Cup. 183 first class wickets in only 38 matches at an average of just 19.34 is easily the best domestic bowling performance in Indian domestic cricket - where the ball doesn't swing either. At least 50 times our new Indian Chief Cricket Selector - Dilip Vengsarkar has said : "Only the performace is the selection creteria". Well folks, Joginder Sharma is a prime example of that (see 3rd alternative). He played 3 ODIs against Bangladesh where he made his debut on 23rd December 2004, and was at the other end when rest of Indian tailenders got out chasing a score of 230 odd against the hosts. That remains our first and only loss to minnows Bangladesh in One day Internationals.
Note : As you can see - Sachin Tendulkar has been appointed as Rahul Dravid's deputy. Which means Sachin Tendulkar will be India's vice captain in this Pepsi Series and will captain Indian team once again if in case Dravid pulls out somhow. Related ArticlesInd vs WI
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