The past few days has seen intense debate on the team composition for the Bangladesh tour and with directives from the BCCI everybody wanted to know how the team would look like. Typically in the past the selection of the team has flattered to deceive, but this time the spring cleaning is for real!

The ODI team has been shorn of half its so-called stars, including the big names of Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly. OF course, the lesser lights like Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar have been banished too, which was about time! Ramesh Powar’s inclusion while good is inexplicable. If the reason he was not picked earlier was his fitness, has it improved now?While definitely the sacking (of course, they are calling it resting) of the big two will cause intense debate and as a worst case scenario will necessitate the moving of the practice away from Kolkatta, it can only be good in the long run. I just hope this puts the fear of God in Yuvraj Singh and Sehwag, for the Gods themselves have been discarded. We need to fight fire with fire on the Bangladesh tour, and young legs with young legs.

The test team sees once again the re-entry of that special Hyderabadi who will have a point to prove and that hunger can only be good for the team. Sehwag finds himself out of favour for this version and rightly so.  Dhoni should consider himself lucky with Karthik breathing heavily down his neck. The middle order retains the same look and feel that we have been used to for a long time and studded with the big names. With Bangladesh being novices, even when compared to their ODI experiences, this should be relatively easy, which is why Sehwag should consider himself all the more unlucky. The spin department looks weak though, with no experienced support spinner to Kumble. Pity Badrinath and Ranadeb Bose still cant find a way into the squad.

All in all, in my opinion I think the selectors have done a good job, given the pushes and pulls over the past month. If this new team performs well in Bangladesh, which I tip them to, it will be very interesting to see what happens when they pick the team for the next ODI series.

Good to go…