The Indian team for the Windies - a shortlist

Prem Panicker

First up, a confession - I am going to cheat a bit, when naming my team for the West Indies.

In the sense, I am picking an 18-member squad, as opposed to the more usual 16 (and frankly, I think the Board of Control for Cricket in India has enough money in its coffers to pay the fare for the two extra members).

Why I want an 18-member squad is very simple, really - India, in course of the West Indies, will play five Tests, four one-dayers, and quite a number of tour games. If there are not enough backup players, then the burden on the frontline batsmen and bowlers will be far too much - and given the amount of cricket India has played from February 1996, when the Wills World Cup began, and the amount of cricket that remains to be played in the West Indies, sufficient bench strength is necessary in order to conserve the energies of the leading players and ensure that they are fresh and match fit for the big games.

With that proviso, here is the side I would personally like to see taking the flight, on February 23, for the West Indies - Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Anil Kumble (vice captain), Sanjay Manjrekar, Saurav Ganguly, Mohammad Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Wasim Jaffer, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia, Syed Saba Karim, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Dodda Ganesh, Salil Ankola, Abey Kuruvilla, Sunil Joshi, Aashish Kapoor.

Here are the whys and wherefores.

First, let us get the obvious facts out of the way, before looking at the marginal selections. The team composition, as I have it, features two wicketkeepers, eight batsmen and the same number of bowlers. And do remember that always, the wicket-keeper is expected to hold his place in the batting lineup as well, so we are actually talking ten batsmen, eight bowlers, here.

Let us get the obvious selections out of the way, before discussing the marginals. Nayan Mongia and Saba Karim pick themselves for the wicket-keeping slots, the former to do duty in the Tests and the latter in the one-dayers. True, Karim was less than perfect behind the stumps in the ODI series in South Africa - but it pays to remember that Mongia, too, had his share of floored chances when he first got into the side. A 'keeper's performance in the national side improves as he goes along, mainly because by keeping to the national bowlers on a regular basis, he develops a rapport with them, and learns to read their variations better. Expecting Karim to be perfect right from the get-go was therefore unrealistic.

Among the batsmen, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Azharuddin and Laxman (who is now fully recovered from the hairline fracture that truncated his South African tour) are obvious picks. Among the bowlers, Srinath, Prasad, Kumble, Joshi and Ankola also chose themselves.

So who does that leave? Among the batsmen, there is Manjrekar, Wasim Jaffar and Ajay Jadeja. Of these three, Jadeja in fact needs little justification for his berth in the side - besides being a devastating lower order batsman in the one dayers, Jadeja's presence in the ranks means that India has someone on call who, in the Tests as well, can either open or bat in the middle order, as required. And this gives the team management more options in case of injuries and/or loss of form.

So that leaves Manjrekar and Jaffer - and it is no coincidence that both are opening batsmen, though Manjrekar is something of a converted opener.

While the West Indies wickets are, contrary to popular belief, not quite as pacy as when Clive Lloyd first introduced his famous four-man pace attack and let the likes of Holding, Garner, Roberts and Marshall loose on vicious lifters, pace bowlers will be the main weapon employed by the host nation. And given that the Indian side has a plethora of strokeplayers, what is needed is the dour anchor - a batsman who will hold one end up, and allow the others the freedom to bat around him.

It could be argued that Dravid is the ideal man for the job. But against that argument, there is this - Dravid, by nature, is a free-scoring batsman who has, in recent times, curbed his natural game in the interests of the team. And this, I suggest, is counter-productive - free him of this burden, and Dravid makes the ideal number three. If he comes in after the loss of an early wicket, he has the temperament and technique to ensure that there is no sudden collapse. And if he comes in after the openers have given the side a good start, he has the strokes to consolidate, and lead the team in a push towards a matchwinning total.

All of which is the reason why I would like to see Manjrekar, at least for now, in the opener's slot, tasked with anchoring the Indian innings.

Wasim Jaffer is a trickier inclusion. True, the young Bombay opener has been in prolific form this domestic season. But if domestic form is any indication, then Vikram Rathore to name one, and Sujit Somasundar to name another, should have been enormously successful at the international level - and we all know that the reverse was the case.

What weighs in Jaffer's favour is that he is, by all indications, technically far more sound than Somasundar and Rathore. And this, in tandem with his youth, makes him an ideal candidate at a time when India is in the process of building a young side capable of doing duty for some years to come.

Having said that, I wouldn't play Jaffer in the opener's slot in the first Test itself. Far too many talented players, not just from India but from the rest of the cricketing world, have discovered that debuting in the West Indies is cricket's equivalent of baptism by fire. And a failure in such a debut tour of the Carribbean has ruined too many careers - ask Robin Singh - for India to risk the same happening with Jaffer.

What I would do, then, is to play him in the tour games and give him a chance to play with the national team, yet without the pressures of the Test arena. This would give the seniors a chance to guide him through the initial stage fright, let him find his feet and then, when the time is right, give him his cap.

Till that point in time, then, Manjrekar and Ganguly to open with Dravid at one drop, Sachin Tendulkar at number four, Azharuddin at five and Laxman, if the team decides to pack its batting, at six is the best lineup India can put in the field right now.

Of course, there is one other option - and frankly, this is the one I would prefer to see. And that is for Tendulkar to open with Ganguly, at least till Jaffer matures and is ready to take over the opener's mantle, or Sidhu returns to form and fitness, or another talented player is unearthed by domestic cricket. Tendulkar has the technical ability to face the new ball and, in fact, ends up playing the opener's role more often than not when a couple of quick wickets go down. And the Indian skipper, too, has the knack of never letting a bowler dominate - and this ensures that a lot of pressure is lifted from the rest of the lineup.

I suspect, though, that Tendulkar himself prefers to bat lower down - and that means the lineup discussed above will be the one to go with.

Now for the bowlers. As already discussed, Srinath, Prasad, Kumble, Joshi and Ankola are obvious choices. Having said that, I would like to see the first four, especially, playing as few of the tour games as possible, and doing duty only in the Tests and ODIs. The reason is simple - Srinath and Prasad will need to bear the brunt of India's bowling in the big games, and thus it makes sense to ensure that they are not overbowled in the tour games, which ideally should be used to let the likes of Ganesh improve their skills and gain in confidence. As for Kumble and Joshi, there is no purpose to be served by letting the West Indian batsmen have too long a look at their bowling ahead of the Tests, by bowling them in the tour games. Therefore, if these four bowlers are confident of their rhythm and do not actually ask to be included in a warm-up game, they should be allowed to rest, and use the nets for acclimatisation.

Ganesh I have included mainly for the tour games, and as an investment for the future. On showing to date, he does have the potential - and the youth - to develop into a useful addition to India's bowling attack. To realise that potential, though, he first needs to work on variety and control, and also to concentrate (as Srinath did earlier in his career) on building shoulder strength, and increase his pace. For these reasons, I would like to see Ganesh play every single tour game - and do his best to press for inclusion to the Test side.

Abey Kuruvilla, like Ankola, has been having good domestic seasons without, however, managing to make the big time. This owes to the Indian mindset that spin is the main weapon, and that pace bowlers are there merely to remove the shine from the ball. That mindset, however, has changed since the development of Srinath and Prasad into world class performers with the new ball, and the time could now be right for Kuruvilla to step into the side. One thing is for sure, India will get nowhere if it relies on just Srinath and Prasad to do the damage with the new ball - and that is why Kuruvilla, Ankola and Ganesh will help, as it gives the team management three options for the role of third seamer.

And while on the subject of seam bowling, I would like to see Ganguly bowl a lot during the West Indies tour. His natural line is off stump, his stock ball the one swinging in to the right hander. When you remember that the West Indies team is packed with left-handers, Ganguly's utility is obvious - his stock ball becomes the one leaving the batsman, and at his reduced pace this increases the risk of edges going to the slips-gully-point cordon.

So that leaves who? Ah yes, Aashish Kapoor - a selection that I am sure will raise the hackles of many fans of Indian cricket. Frankly, I am not sure why there is this almost universal disregard for Kapoor's merits. A friend in fact emailed me a diatribe against Kapoor recently, and his main argument was that the off spinner has not taken many wickets in his career. By that yardstick, neither did Srinath when he first started out, remember? I have been watching Kapoor throughout this season, and find tremendous signs of improvement. His spells in the one-off Test against Australia read 10-2-30-2 in the first innings and 22-5-42-1 in the second, and anyone who saw him bowl will tell you that it was the pressure he brought to bear on the Aussie batsmen that contributed to the ease with which Srinath, Prasad and Kumble broke through at the other end. Against South Africa, again, Kapoor in the only Test he played, at Kanpur (and let me reiterate here that not even Cronje or Woolmer called that a spinning track) had spells of 8-2-19-2 and 13-8-10-0 - and that is as good as you get.

Even without this, I have one overwhelming reason for including Kapoor. Kumble bowls flat, straight through the air and relies on the top spinner and flipper as his shock, and strike, weapons both. When he does spin the ball, it will turn away from the left hander and down the leg side, enabling the batsmen to work him off his pads. Joshi, for his part, relies on flight and loop, but again, the stock ball is the one pitching off and middle for the left hander and spinning away to leg (though of course, Joshi being a left-armer will, when bowling over the wicket to the left-hander, prefer to bowl it outside off and spinning in).

This is where Kapoor, especially when bowling round the wicket, comes in handy - for his stock ball will be the one pitching on middle and off and spinning across the left-hander's bat. Just the delivery that, backed with slip, short gully and silly point, can test the ability of the West Indian batsmen to the utmost.

As to the bowling composition as a whole, I would always go into a Test with three quicks and two spinners - the free stroking Windies batsmen, more than even the South Africans and Australians, hate being tied down by spin bowling and hence it makes all the more sense to test them in the spin department.

And now for the omissions - Robin Singh being the only obvious one. Much as I regard Robin's strokeplay and his fielding abilities, I can really see no slot for him in the Test team, as his bowling is not penetrative enough to merit the third seamer's slot. We need, for the Tests, bowlers capable of striking, of taking wickets and taking some of the burden off Srinath and Prasad - and Robin, with all due respect, is not in that category.

I would, therefore, send Robin to the West Indies just before the fifth Test, so that he has time to acclimatise before the ODIs begin - and in the shorter version of the game, Robin's batting, fielding and fifth-bowler capabilities make his inclusion in the side a cert.

One last thought: Along with this team, I would send in addition to team coach Madan Lal and the administrative manager (how I wish either Ravi Shastri or Sunil Gavaskar could be persuaded into taking on this role - we would then get two coaches for the price of one, besides having at the helm a cricketer of stature who, in the event of tour arrangements not being quite at par, has the clout to make himself heard), a backup team of one physical fitness trainer to monitor team workouts. The Indian side's running between wickets, and performance in the field, indicates a side not even halfway to being in prime physical condition - and that is no way for a team to take the field.

And if the BCCI, in its wisdom, augments the side's backup team with a sports psychologist, I would die happy. This team has proved in the past that come the crunch, it has the ability to lift its collective game to almost unbelievable heights - what we need is to find a way of motivating the side to play at its peak throughout, and not merely when faced with do-or-die situations.

The day that happens, the day the Indian team goes in to every single Test or one-dayer in aggressive frame of mind, is the day we will match potential with results.

Meanwhile, love to hear what you folks think of our selection - go for it! And do remember that around 1 pm tomorrow, I will be meeting Mr Ramakant Desai, to hand over printouts of the recommendations you had sent in earlier.