Future look of the Indian Team

The Indian team is struggling in England. We have always struggled in the english conditions however, expectations were really high this time around since we were on top of the rankings in both Tests and ODIs. That did not happen. Infact the performance of the Indian team was so dismal that it has made watching matches a pretty boring affair; something that had never happened to me in at least last 20 years.

Due to our performance in England, everyone is talking about who should be in the side and who should be omitted. I have my opinion as well. However, I am so bored with cricket now that I want to see some changes. A lot of key players are not available due to injuries and when they come back, there would be limited scope of a change in the team. Yet, we need to rethink our strategies, especially when some of the big guns are not likely to continue playing cricket to their grave. We must ensure that the big guns do not leave behind too big a void to fill. Moreover, we need to be a bit 'radical' in our approach as far as team selection is concerned for the shorter formats of the game.  

One good thing that IPL has done is that it has given visibility to a lot of players. It is a difficult format to judge someone's technique but it does help in comparing players. Following is the team that I want to see once the big guns leave the scene.

Test Side (Based on current form) 

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. AT Rayadu
5. Ajinkya Rahane
6. Rohit Sharma (we seriously lack a genuine all-rounder for this spot)
7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (though I do not think that he is fit to be a test batsman)
8. Harbhajan Singh (this is where the problem lies as we do not have quality spinners)
9. Zaheer Khan (we need to quickly find a replacement for him)
10. Ishant Sharma
11. S Sreesanth
12. Parthiv Patel
13. Virat Kohli
14. Rahul Sharma
15. Dhawal Kulkarni

(other probables could include Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina (deserves more opportunities), Deepak Chahar (need to see more of him though), Manish Pandey, Abhinav Mukund, Irrfan Pathan (if he rediscovers his swing), Shikhar Dhawan, Pragyan Ojha)

T-20 Side (Based on current form) 

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Robin Utthappa
3. Suresh Raina
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Rohit Sharma
6. Yusuf Pathan
7. Mahender Singh Dhoni
8. Irrfan Pathan
9. R Ashwin
10. Zaheer Khan
11. Praveen Kumar
12. Virat Kohli
13. Manish Pandey
14. Manoj Tiwary
15. Munaf Patel

(other probables could include Gautam Gambhir, AT Rayadu, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Sharma, Iqbal Abdulla, S Arvind, Murali Vijay, Varun Aaron (need to see more of him though), Deepak Chahar (need to see more of him though), Shikhar Dhawan)

ODI Side (Based on current form)

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Gautam Gambhir
3. Virat Kohli
4. Yuvraj Singh
5. Suresh Raina
6. Yusuf Pathan
7. Mahender Singh Dhoni
8. R Ashwin
9. Zaheer Khan
10. Praveen Kumar
11. Ashish Nehra
12. Rahul Sharma
13. Ajinkya Rahane
14. Parthiv Patel
15. Ishant Sharma

(other probables could include Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Utthappa, Ravinder Jadeja, Deepak Chahar (need to see more of him though), Irrfan Pathan (only if he rediscovers his swing), Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel)