Pakistan's rare vision and India's lack of it

Pakistan have what India dont right now. A vision for world cup. They have been comical, losers and butt of all jokes. One point of time they did not appear to win anything.  Out of nowhere they now have a strong bowling lineup in Asif, Aamer, Gul, Wahab and Ajmal. Not to forget that Sohel Tanveer is out since long.  They bat pathetic, but at least the selectors while chosing the ODI squad showed some sense and welcome at that given the selection blunders they have been do ing at Butt senior's behest.

The selectors in Pakistan dance to Butt's tune. Thats why Younis Khan is still out and MoYo is in.

In India the selectors themselves are dancers and charmers. Thats why the dancers are in the team.  I dont see a point in trying out a dancer opening the batting with Viru when we have 3 openers playing at top 3. Sachin, Sehwag and Gambhir should form top 3 provided none of them is injured.

Yuvraj comfortably occupies 4 and one of Raina and Dhoni go at 5 and 6.  Concern is for 7. Who goes at 7? An allrounder? Or a specialist batsman who can be a floater like Kaif and Uthappa in the past.  A look at the allrounders and we have 3 names:

Jadeja : Nothing player

Y Pathan : Given enough chances did not cement his place. Continued losing his wicket to mindless slogs.

I Pathan : Not played for India since Feb 2009. He is an ideal # 7 even with the way he bowls right now. Even if he bowls 6 or 7 overs and makes 40 odd runs he would be more than handy for India in home conditions. Not to forget that he had a lot of success as # 3 in ODIs in Chappell era.

If we look for a floater kinda batsman then we have 2 options for now:

• Virat Kohli : He is too good a player to be left off. He has to play in the XI and if he is willing to flex his bowling arm and bowl good 4-5 overs then he could be a good floater.
• Robin Uthappa : Bat and keep. Was effective at 7 in England tour.

Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Sreesanth would be the bowlers to pick from.

Harbhajan Singh, IPL Ojha and Amit Mishra along side R Ashvin would be the slow bowlers.

I wish India loses the game against NZ and goes home to get some rest. From Sep 10 7 players who would be around in WC would play T20 cricket in SA.

Tendulkar, Zaheer, Harbhajan for Mumbai Indians

MSD, Raina for Chennai Super Kinks

Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar for RCB

And then immediately we have the Australia Test series coming up where 6 of the participating players would take part (5 + Rahul Dravid).

So the coming fortnight is of crucial importance for India as it would provide the jaded and tired players an opportunity to rest. Likes of Viru, Gambhir, Yuvraj would have close to a month off. Good for them. When they return for Australia Test series, they would know they would rest next only after World Cup, the best chance for India to win after 1983. Does Srikanth want so ? Dont know. But if he does not then may be some spank off his ass from BCCI would make him want to and we would see likes of Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Jadeja confined to just playing IPL and MPL.