By: Drcricket7 Staff
By picking veteran Harbhajan Singh and newbie Gurkeerat Singh Mann in T20 and ODI squads respectively for the India vs South Africa series, the Indian selection committee has re-emphasised the need for more all-rounders — to emerge as a successful international team.
Very often, we miss the trick while understanding the intricacies a good team. Some say that it’s the batting prowess while there are others who believe that a good bowling side always makes a huge difference.
All those are important but the real success story comes through good all-rounders. India lost to Sri Lanka by a very close margin in the last T20 World Championship final because of lack of all-rounders.
Due to the same reason, MS Dhoni and his men again lost the 2015 World Cup semifinal match to Australia. But if you look back at India’s all three World Cup wins – 1983, 2007 and 2011 – they were possible due to the all-round skills of the side then.
It’s seems amply clear that the Indian team management and the selection committee have come to an agreement — to focus on honing the all-round skills of the players during the home series and keeping a close watch on those who will be performing well in the domestic cricket.
Already, there are high hopes from two of the existing all-rounders in the team – Stuart Binny and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But somehow, everyone has to double up in the team and in that way, India have picked a good team for the SA series at home.
In the T20 team, there are at least 12 all-rounders in the T20 team. Starting from captain MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma to Amit Mishra, everyone has be categorized in the all-rounder slot.
It’s all three cricketers – Shikhar Dhawan (who can still bowl a bit), Ajinkya Rahane and new-comer pacer S Arvind – who can’t be exactly called an all-rounder. The ODI squad is similar in nature. It’s only Umesh Yadav is the only bowler who is also can’t be called an all-rounder.
Also, it’s tremendous news to see a leg-spinner coming into India’s scheme of things. Drcricket7 was the only website to report on how India could have missed a trick by not picking a leggie for the 2015 World Cup in Australia. From time immemorial, leg-spinners are considered to be real match-winners and nothing has changed since then.
