Is India better off without Tendulkar in ODIs?

India commence the new season with a five-match ODI series and a Twenty20 match in Sri Lanka. The World champions will be keen to stamp their authority and also get back to winning ways after recent failures in back-to-back series, the Asia Cup and CB tri-series in Australia.

Sachin Tendulkar has opted out of the series, but not many are bothered about his absence as he has been doing it for the last few years. With age, Tendulkar is looking more and more susceptible and there are questions marks over his fitness and stamina to last a 50-over game.

A few other seniors too will be under the scanner over the next few weeks.

As the Men in Blue went through a rough patch towards the end of last season, dressing room differences came out in the open and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had an indirect war of words with seniors like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir via media conferences.

Sehwag, Tendulkar and Gambhir's fitness standards were questioned by Dhoni, who was in favour of having younger players in the squad as he believed they could make a sizeable contribution in the field.

Thus, it was no surprise that all the three players were not played together in most of the matches of the CB tri-series, and Sehwag then not included for the Asia Cup.

Dhoni's men won the World Cup last year, but since then failed to stamp their authority in the 50-overs format. Team selection was a major issue in the past season and the skipper will be hoping to get a settled combination in place, not only for the present but also the future, especially keeping the 2015 World Cup in mind.

So that leaves the selectors in a quandary: whether to go with the flow and allow Tendulkar the luxury of picking and choosing his ODI matches or prepare a team for the future, one that may not necessarily involve the veteran batsman.

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India's World Cup-winning squad was not built over a year or two; there was meticulous planning over four years as youngsters were carefully groomed; only those seniors capable of lasting till the end were retained. Even the great Rahul Dravid had to be shown the door, but that doesn't seem to the case when it comes to dealing with Tendulkar.

It is important to note that every series India plays from now on, the next World Cup has to be kept in mind; the next three years must be spent in building a team with the objective of getting a winning combination for the mega-event.

While Sehwag and Gambhir look good to make it to the 2015 World Cup, question marks remain over Zaheer Khan, who has had a few fitness issues in the last couple of years.

Noted cricket writer and commentator Harsha Bhogle believes the current squad is India's best in ODIs at the moment.

'india's best odi line up at the moment is sehwag, gambhir, kohli, rohit, dhoni, raina, irfan, ashwin, zaheer, yadav & ojha,' he wrote on Twitter.

(Squad for SL tour: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virat Kohli (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Manoj Tiwary, Umesh Yadav, Rahul Sharma, Pragyan Ojha).

Writer Suresh Menon also echoed similar sentiments and believes it is time for Tendulkar to give up ODIs if he will not last till the 2015 World cup.

'Now, with three years to go for the next tournament, India must rebuild. Allowing Tendulkar to pick and choose would mean keeping a younger man on tenterhooks or finding at the last moment that a replacement is not ready to take over yet. It is a judgement call. Selectors must decide whether Tendulkar is sound investment for 2015, and if they feel he is not, he should be told gently,' he wrote in his column for Wisden India.

Do you also feel that Tendulkar no longer commands a place in the Indian ODI team?

Is India better off without Tendulkar in the ODI team? Should Tendulkar come out clean with his plans when it comes to ODIs keeping the next World Cup in mind?

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