Rohit Sharma seems to have seized upon the oppurtunity to bat up the order in the ongoing T20 World cup with both hands. While he has yet to play the strong sides in the competition the form shown so far represents an important turning point in Rohit’s budding India career. With Sachin Tendulkar likely to hang up his boots post the World cup next year Rohit Sharma might well represent the Gen next’s answer to fill his gigantic boots.

Pujara drives

In fact with the ‘golden trio’ of Sachin, Dravid and Laxman all set to retire in the next 1-2 yrs the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteswar Pujara, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhavan and possibly even Dinesh Kartik will vie to get into the test side. A successful transition up the order in T20 and 50 over games should bolster Rohit’s stake for a Test middle order slot -  maybe even make him the front runner for the coveted no. 4 slot st thid point.  Yuvraj Singh too must not take his Test place for granted considering his rather woeful technique(or rather the lack of it) against the new ball particularly outside the subcontinent.

It will be interesting to see if selectors pick youth – represented by the above contenders – or opt for a stop gap arrangement in the form of Badrinath if Rahul Dravid hangs up his boots next yr(as expected). My vote would be Pujara for Dravid, Rohit Sharma for Sachin and a tossup between Raina, Kohli for Laxman’s spot. Maybe we can even see Yuvraj lose out his place in favour of either Kohli/Raina/ Dhawan. My guess is selectors will opt for Badrinath for Dravid and then ease Rohit into the side once Sachin/VVS retires. Or maybe they’ll surprise me by dropping Yuvraj(about time) and bringing in Rohit immediately. For once they need to distinguish between form shown in the longer/shorter format of the game. After almost a decade Yuvraj has not yet sorted out his technique against the new ball and failed to score any significant runs outside the subcontinent in test cricket. Even our selectors who equate T20 and 50 over success as criteria for Test selection must be running out of patience!

AB DeVilliers bowled by Tyagi

These days I’m also rooting for Sudeep Tyagi the tall young fast bowler from UP who seems to have recovered completely from the back injury suffered last year going by the impressive form shown in the IPL. Sudeep needs to build some muscle onto his wiry frame if he is to continue his progress without injury. The selectors for once have been smart by offering him a grade D contract at this early stage of his career. Sudeep does have a natural outswinger as his stock ball and a mean incutter for variety. As AB Deviliers found out during the IPL they can be a pretty lethal combination(see picture). Tyagi also seemed to get a fair bit of bounce due to his high arm action and managed to get Dravid in one of the matches due to steep bounce from a good length. The 3rd seamers slot for test matches abroad is still up for contention with Ashish Nehra too now in the fray after a terrific IPL season. I would preferably like to see a right arm quick bowler to take the spot.

Another player in the fray for a Test place is Pragyan Ojha who is the best left arm spinner we have had since Murali Kartick. Pragyan seems to spin the ball more and extracts more bounce. His success in the limited overs format has brought him in the limelight and now with Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra around there is a healthy mix of spinners vieing for spots in the Test side. Harbhajan Singh too now  needs to keep up his recent good form and improve his performances abroad where he averages just 3 wickets per Test at an average of 37 !