It was not a surprise that India's selectors picked a young side for its 30-member preliminary squad for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. In fact, only four members of the World Cup-winning team from 2011 have been retained. But to get a real sense of how young this team is likely to be, you have to look at how much experience the dropped players have.
The selectors have decided to desert the Big 5: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Put together, these five players have almost as much experience as all of the selected 30, combined. The chart below explains just how stark this disparity in experience is.
The four members of India’s World Cup winning squad from 2011 who have made the cut are captain MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin. The rest of the team bears a young look, with the entire 30-man squad having played only a slightly larger number of matches than the “Big 5” who were dropped – 1,381 vs 1,120 – and have scored a lot more runs.
Looking at the bowling side, it is almost dead even in terms of wickets. Diving deeper and looking at the ratio between runs and wickets, both are near identical. The 30-man squad comes out marginally ahead at 32.6 runs per wicket versus 33.5 of the dropped five. Although there are few remnants from the 2011 Cup-winning squad, almost all of the players who won the Champions Trophy for India in 2013 have made it to the final 30.
Zaheer Khan was dropped, both because of injuries and because, at 36, he might be too old for a fast-bowler to be consistently quick. Yuvraj Singh has been out of form for some time now. The same is true of the great entertaining big-hit batsman – Sehwag. Out of the five, Gambhir and Harbhajan had the best chance of making the cut, but the selectors obviously felt they were well past their prime. These five players are unlikely to play for India again – but when they played, they were a powerful force.
Out of these 30, a further 15 will be dropped, with the final 15–man side set to be announced on January 7.
The selectors have decided to desert the Big 5: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Put together, these five players have almost as much experience as all of the selected 30, combined. The chart below explains just how stark this disparity in experience is.
The four members of India’s World Cup winning squad from 2011 who have made the cut are captain MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin. The rest of the team bears a young look, with the entire 30-man squad having played only a slightly larger number of matches than the “Big 5” who were dropped – 1,381 vs 1,120 – and have scored a lot more runs.
Looking at the bowling side, it is almost dead even in terms of wickets. Diving deeper and looking at the ratio between runs and wickets, both are near identical. The 30-man squad comes out marginally ahead at 32.6 runs per wicket versus 33.5 of the dropped five. Although there are few remnants from the 2011 Cup-winning squad, almost all of the players who won the Champions Trophy for India in 2013 have made it to the final 30.
Zaheer Khan was dropped, both because of injuries and because, at 36, he might be too old for a fast-bowler to be consistently quick. Yuvraj Singh has been out of form for some time now. The same is true of the great entertaining big-hit batsman – Sehwag. Out of the five, Gambhir and Harbhajan had the best chance of making the cut, but the selectors obviously felt they were well past their prime. These five players are unlikely to play for India again – but when they played, they were a powerful force.
Out of these 30, a further 15 will be dropped, with the final 15–man side set to be announced on January 7.
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