PATHAN'S PUZZLE

The Indian selectors recently announced the probables list of 30 for the World T20 Championship in West Indies in May 2010. Here is the list:

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, M S Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, S Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha, Piyush Chawla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Manish Pandey, R P Singh, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin.

Here is a small analysis:

Pure Batsmen (3): Gautam Gambhir, Manish Pandey, M Vijay.

Batsmen who can bowl a bit (7): Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli.

Keeper Batsmen (4): Dinesh Karthik, M S Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha.

Bowlers who can bat a bit (7): Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra.

Pure Bowlers (9): S Sreesanth, Sudeep Tyagi, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, R P Singh, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, R Ashwin.

I have a feeling that many of you might disagree with my classification of Ravindra Jadeja (or maybe even Abhishek Nayar), and I will be delighted to hear your views. You can always leave your comments, but as far as I am concerned, Jadeja is a very good bowler who can bat a bit, certainly not T20 style.

An interesting omission was Irfan Pathan (My Classification: Batsman who can bowl a bit), who is supposed to be injured. If he is being excluded from the list of probables of World Twenty20 Championship, which is to start from April 30, does this mean he will be unavailable for Kings XI Punjab's IPL campaign? That would be a huge blow for Preity Zinta owned franchisee as they are unsure about the participation of Brett Lee as well.

But if Pathan Jr. does play the IPL, would it be safe to assume that the injury claim was just a gimmick played by the selectors to tell Irfan that he is no longer considered amongst the top 30 players in India by them?

Though I am not a great fan of Irfan Pathan, I don't think that he should be considered below the likes of Vinay Kumar or Abhishek Nayar. For that matter, he could have been included even in place of Naman Ojha (why do we need 4 keepers in the list?) or R Ashwin (9 bowlers are far too many).

Well, lets see what the selectors come up with as their final 15 to tour the Caribbean islands! I am sure that atleast a couple of the above mentioned guys will get injured during the IPL and a few outside the list will impress. Tha ball is in the court of the Indian Selection Committee.