An inconvenient truth?

When a team for a big tournament is announced with no surprises, it could be for a variety of reasons. Firstly there's the Australia situation, where a team has been winning consistently over a period of time, and wears a settled look, only needing tinkering when someone is injured. Then there's the Sri Lanka situation, where a team has sorted out its combination, has had plenty of time to test it, and believes it gives them the best chance of success. And finally there's the India situation, where there are simply no other viable choices. Now, this isn't the ideal position to be in, but that does not automatically mean that the team chosen is a bad one.

India's biggest problem at the moment is that they go into the World Cup with a squad that has several players who are decidedly undercooked. Yuvraj Singh, a proven matchwinner in one-dayers, had two international matches in three months. Irfan Pathan is in much the same boat. Munaf Patel is returning from an injury, and Virender Sehwag has spent too little time at the crease, through indifferent form and a forced break. But, having said that, a lot of this is because of the circumstances the team has been faced with, rather than any fault of the team management or the selectors.

Rahul Dravid had said earlier that there was little to do now for these players other than to make the most of the last two matches against Sri Lanka and then put in a lot of "hard nets." That's precisely what they must do, but whether it will be enough remains to be seen. The one thing in India's favour is that all these players are experienced enough, especially in one-day cricket, and have tasted plenty of success in the past, which means they know the road forward.

If you have to feel for someone who has missed the cut, it is Ramesh Powar, the Mumbai offspinner. He's had his opportunities through injury to one of India's premier spinners, and has, largely, grabbed them. With Anil Kumble no longer the ace ODI bowler that he once was - there was a time when it was next to impossible to score more than 40 runs off his 10 overs - and Harbhajan Singh growing into a restrictive option rather than a genuinely wicket-taking one, there was hope for Powar. For, even in the face of some heavy mauling, Powar has shown the nerve and ability to continue to toss the ball up, stick to his plans, and look for wickets.

The disappointing thing for Powar is that all that he's done simply has not been enough to displace one of the two main spinners. The selectors have gone for pedigree over pluck, and you can't fault them too much. The hope was that Powar would bring to the table some of the belligerent batting that he so routinely delivers in domestic cricket, and that his fitness and fielding would be lifted once he was in the Team India environment.

Despite his steely nerve, Ramesh Powar simply has not done enough to displace one of the two main spinners © Getty Images

While his fielding is nowhere near as bad as it is made out to be by some people who cannot look past his podgy build, his batting has contributed little in the chances he got. With Pathan going off the boil, there was a real chance for Powar to cement his place in the side as a bowler who could contribute with the bat - not in a floating position but certainly down the order - but that never happened.

The other person who will count himself unlucky, and will be missed in certain ways, is Suresh Raina. Not long ago, he was the next batting hope, one rung below Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif, the second of whom seems all but finished, and today he finds himself left far behind. Dinesh Karthik fields like a tiger and has done a lot more with the bat, and raced ahead of Raina in the pecking order. Robin Uthappa brings that same fielding electricity to the mix and has been a massive hit with the bat. Still, even with all his failures with the bat, having Raina in the squad would not have been a bad thing, just for the manner in which he fields, but there simply is no space.

At one stage in the recent Rajkot one-dayer against Sri Lanka, the field, starting from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the wicketkeeper, and working your way around anticlockwise, was as follows: Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly (slips), Kumble (third man), Karthik (point), Uthappa (cover), Munaf (mid-off), Dravid (mid-on), Harbhajan (midwicket) and Sehwag (square leg). Of course, this looks especially dodgy because Yuvraj, Ajit Agarkar, Pathan and Zaheer Khan were missing through injury, but still, you can see the vast gap between the trio of Uthappa, Karthik, Yuvraj and the rest. So will teams like Australia, and India will be conceding a serious handicap in the field every single time.

There will be those who feel wronged: VVS Laxman has already made some comments about not having being given enough chances, Kaif supporters will be up in arms over a career in disarray, and Gautam Gambhir may have nursed some hopes. But, if you assembled a completely different set of five selectors, and they honestly picked 15, it would not be much different from this one.