India's WC squad not good enough

CLASS APART: Mohinder Amarnath says the 2003 World Cup squad was better than the present one.

        

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

Top Headlines

Top Videos

Most Popular

• Time for Mamata to walk the Budget talk 

• I have done everything for all the states: Mamata 

• Mamata's Budget express chugs in with goodies 

• NO INCREASE IN PASSENGER FARES, FREIGHT TARIFF 

• Top bosses fly high as AI struggles to survive 

• North Korea fires two more missiles again 

• Lalu, Mamata are not on the same track 

• Watch: Aam aadmi rates Rail Budget 2009 

• Popular demands met, slew of sops in Rail Budget 

• Sarah Palin to step down as Alaska governor: Report  

• I have done everything for all the states: Mamata 

• Watch: Lalu determined to derail Mamata express 

• Cabinet split over order legalising homosexuality  

• Watch: People don Pranab Mukherjee's role 

• PM gives thumbs up to Mamata's Budget 

• Watch: Aam aadmi rates Rail Budget 2009 

• Watch: B-school students' Budget wishlist 

• CEO Speak: Healthcare sector wants industry status 

• Indians want FM to re-introduce standard deduction 

• For Delhi Daredevils fans it's football in off season 

• Masand's Movie Review: Kambakkht Ishq vulgar, offensive 

• I have done everything for all the states: Mamata 

• Cabinet split over order legalising homosexuality  

• Top bosses fly high as AI struggles to survive 

• Masand's Movie Review: Ice Age 3 enormously entertaining 

• Roddick knocks out Murray, to face Federer in final 

• Rajeev's Recco: AR Rahman: The Musical Storm 

• Time for Mamata to walk the Budget talk 

• Dhoni wins India a thriller | Score | Pics 

• Vikram Seth on A Suitable Girl, homsexuality 

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

New Delhi: The final World Cup squad is out. There are 15 of them and they promise India the World Cup. The national selectors have retained the same 15 who played in the last ODI against Sri Lanka at Rajkot.

This means Virender Sehwag and all-rounder Irfan Pathan are in for the mega event in the Caribbean Islands that begins on March 13. Sachin Tendulkar has been retained as the vice-captain. The selectors have decided to go with five seamers at the expense of an extra spinner.

But is this cricket team good enough to win the World Cup in 2007? That's the question a panel of experts dealt with in the CNN-IBN special show Face The Nation, hosted by Rajdeep Sardesai.

It's the moment cricket fans across India had been waiting for with bated breath. After all the experiments and all the heated debate, the names of the 15 men, who will wear the treasured blue shirt for India in the West Indies World Cup, are out.

Rahul Dravid will lead the squad that includes nine members from the team that had reached the final of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

"How we perform in the World Cup depends largely on how the key players, supported by the rest of the players, perform. That's what the focus really should be on," Dravid said immediately after the team was announced.

But the is the middle-order batting of the Indian team still fragile? There aren't the kind of finishers that a team needs in one-day cricket. India doesn't have strong players on slots No. 5, 6 and 7. Is that the problem at the moment?

Mahinder Amarnath, the man who was the Man of the Match in 1983 when India won the cricket World Cup title for the first and only time, agrees this is a problem area mainly "because of Yuvraj Singh's injury. I am not sure how fit he is or how fit he is going to be when India starts its World Cup campaign," he says.

Amarnath, in fact, believes that "a fit Yuvraj is very critical for the World Cup from India' point of view. "If you see the last one year of Indian cricket, wherever Yuvraj had played, he has done well. And wherever India has won, he has been a part of that particular win. That's why Yuvraj's contribution is going to be very important."

That brings in a very logical question about Virender Sehwag. If he goes at number 6, as people are now suggesting, is he also going to play a critical role? Can Sehwag possibly play the role of an explosive No 6? Or should he continue to open?

"I think No 6 is too far," says Amarnath. "We have got to see how well we start the innings. The opening slots are very important. Uthappa and Sourav Ganguly have opened here, but you don't know who will be the openers there."

Amarnath says his personal choice for the openers' slots will be two experienced cricketers. "I would go with the experienced guys. With Sourav Ganguly, I would like to see Sachin coming back to open when the tournament starts. The first few games are very important. Then you can work out later on. Tendulkar can bat at No 4 or 5 and, thus, you can play around with Tendulkar."

There was a question mark over Sehwag when the team was being selected. There were even reports that the selection committee was divided on this question. Is Sehwag still the kind of person Indian needs to win a World Cup?

"Yes," says Milind Rege, former Mumbai captain and selector. He says he believes that Sehwag is the kind of person India needs to win the World Cup.

"Because he is an explosive player. He is the kind of player, who has always won matches for you. I would have been happier if Sehwag had played the earlier four games against West Indies. Because if he was going to go to the West Indies for the World Cup, I saw no reason why they didn't give him an opportunity to play the first four games. He could have got back into his groove and I sincerely feel that he should open the innings because he is the kind of person who can thrash all kinds of attacks, especially on flat wickets."