Irfan Pathan: The next Kapil Dev or the next Debashish Mohanty?

One cricketer whose performances are bound to come under close scrutiny this season is Irfan Pathan. After a near-dream start to his international career in Australia and then in Pakistan, he had an ordinary season last year - which in no small way contributed to India's average fortunes in the season gone by. The clamour and the hype that surrounded his performances in his first year that he was India's next Kapil Dev has died down. In fact, the end of the last season saw him dropped not just from the playing eleven against Pakistan but altogether from the squad of fourteen. This does beg the question - was it a case of his not being a hundered percent fit or was it a case of someone who needed helpful conditions to succeed at the international level?

About a decade back, India had seen the advent of a similar swing bowling talent who had gone on to make an impression in helpful conditions in Toronto, England and Australia but petered out in not-s0-helpful conditions back home - Debashish Mohanty. Mohanty was unplayable in helpful conditions and took wickets by the bagful. But his lack of genuine pace (120's) proved his undoing. Irfan also has had a great deal of success, but he too suffers from the same problem - his lack of genuine pace. I do hope for India and crickets sake, that Mohanty's story does not get repeated with Pathan.

Super-sub rule: Boon for sides bereft of allrounders?

The super-sub rule is a welcome change in one day cricket and does bring an element of excitement to the game that was starting to become mundane. Apart from everything else that is being spoken about how good it is for the game, I think the rule is bound to benefit sides that lack quality allrounders more (say India & West Indies) than sides that already have a bunch of quality all-rounders like Pakistan and South Africa.

Take the case of India. If it bats first and like always packs its side with 7 batsmen. During its innings it can retire a batsman like Dravid or Kaif and subsititute one of them with a bowler to give them depth in bowling. This would level the playing field with a team teeming with allrounders like Pakistan - which typically on any given day can call upon 3 top-class allrounders who bowl decently - Razzaq, Afridi and Shoaib Malik. These all-rounders are better than a lot of non-regular bowlers. Mind you a player who has been substituted can still field - so India does not lose Kaif in the field if he is subsitituted.

If it bowls first, India can quickly bowl out one bowler on the trot at the beginning of the innings and bring in a batsman. I am not sure of this interpretation of the rule . Does anyone else know better?

My selection for the first ICC World XI test

20 players have been announced as probables for the ICC XI test team to face Australia. Out of the 20 announced, i would leave out the following 9 - Sachin Tendulkar, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Makhaya Ntini, Shaun Pollock, Younis Khan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Andrew Flintoff and Graeme Smith. Tendulkar and Pollock lose out on current form. Brendon McCullum loses out to Boucher on his batting. Ntini would be the third fast bowler if a game is played in Perth. Chanderpaul and Younis are not in the same class as the other batsmen. Flintoff loses out to Kallis because of Kallis's better batting record while Graeme Smith loses out the opening slot and the captaincy narrowly to Vaughan on experience. Ntini would also be a cover for Shoaib Akhtar for the second test (assuming Akhtar's injury record holds).

So the team in batting order for the first test would be

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Michael Vaughan (Captain)
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Inzamam-ul-Haq
5. Brian Lara
6. Jacques Kallis
7. Mark Boucher
8. Anil Kumble
9. Muttiah Murlidharan
10. Steve Harmison
11. Shoaib Akhtar
12. Makhaya Ntini (12th man)