The annual day-night NKP Salve Trophy Challenger Series, starting at Sardar Patel Gujarat stadium in Motera on Thursday, is a good opportunity for many youngsters to showcase their talents. While some of them have already represented the country and are now trying to stage a comeback, others have been knocking at the doors of Team India.
Good showing in this tournament may help them to at least stake their claims. Or so it seems. In reality, however, most of the players assembled here are aware that they do not stand a fair chance of getting selected in the Indian side for the about-to-begin home series against Pakistan even if they put up a stellar performance or two.
Of the 42 players who figure in India Blue, India Green and India Red teams, only Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik are the regular members of the current national squad. The selectors have either "rested" or not picked those who are bound to play against Pakistan both in ODIs as well as Tests. The message is loud and clear -- this particular edition of the Challenger Series is being staged simply because it is a part of India 's domestic cricket calendar.
Of course, this in no way should dishearten the young brigade of Indian cricket. It must be accepted, even lauded, that the BCCI has been far too magnanimous in recent years in giving chances to those youngsters who are genuinely promising even if they may be lacking in consistently solid performances. This very fact should instill hope and optimism in the players who have the skills, may be the performance also to back them, but are unlikely to play against Pakistan.
Considering the heavy amount of cricket which is played at international level, India has invariably had a packed schedule. Team India will tour down under immediately after the Pakistanis leave our shores. And it is too much to believe that all those who are to represent India against Pakistan will be successful. Far from it. This is where, and when, the ones waiting in the wing come into the picture. The chances are some of them may get a look-in. Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Ishant Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Joginder Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Cheteshwar Pujara and many others of their ilk, all keyed up to parade their talents here, have it in them to pose a serious threat to the established but inconsistent members of Team India in the near future.
The likes of Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel and Ramesh Powar will want to make the most of the Challenger Series. Raina, who was so impressive in his earlier ODIs, sustained a knee injury after he was dropped for want of form. He has fully recovered now. But he had a poor Irani Cup match earlier this month in Rajkot and he will be keen to make up for that in this tournament.
Patel, on the other hand, is desperate to prove his fitness and form. After having cut a slightly sorry figure in the first innings of the Irani Cup tie, he devastated the Mumbai batting line-up in the second and won the match for the Rest of India. He bowled with a lot of fire and venom and there were shades of the vintage Patel, who really bowled like a champion against England at home and versus the West Indies in the Caribbean. And that too in Test matches.
Powar's lackluster off-spin bowling, unreliable batting and woefully poor form have finally made the national selectors show him the exit door. Like Raina and Patel, he is also one of the few who is out to prove a point and trying to make a comeback. But the selectors have again fallen back on the left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, who has grabbed the opportunity and cemented his place in Team India with his super bowling performance against Australia in the last ODI as well as the one-off Twenty20 match. Powar seems to be in for a long struggle to come back into the Indian team.
Much the same could be said about Mohammad Kaif as well. But then the selectors have already given him so many opportunities and the highly over-rated UP batsman, who is undoubtedly one of the best fielders in the world, has never truly grabbed them.
Another India discard who has been making a game effort to rehabilitate himself in the national side is the local hero Parthiv Patel. He is in terrific form this season, having already scored five centuries on the trot. He was the most outstanding batsman on the show in the Irani Cup. A couple of more brilliant innings in the Challenger Series may compel the selectors to consider Parthiv for the Test series against Pakistan. You may still not give Parthiv 100 marks as a wicketkeeper, but you cannot ignore his performances with the bat. If Karthik can play as a specialist batsman, then even Parthiv can do so. And the Ahmedabad lad has proved his ability as an opener, too.
And then there is Virender Sehwag, who had the entire nation at his feet not long ago. India's only Test triple centurion has been so wretchedly out of form despite getting more chances than he deserved that he faces the danger of never getting a recall from the national selectors, what with so many gifted young batsmen vying for a place in the Indian side. Sehwag should give his all to the Challenger Series at least for his own cause. Instead, the India blue captain had not landed in Ahmedabad till Wednesday night. It was really strange to see the India blue players practise under floodlights on Wednesday evening without their skipper Sehwag.
It will be interesting to see if Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, and company pick any fresh face when they meet in Ahmedabad on Saturday to choose the Indian team for the ODIs against Pakistan.