Sydney Morning Herald aptly underlined the erosion of Australia's position in world Cricket as only one Aussie found place in World Test Team for 2008. Not long ago such World XI outfits used to have at least 5 - 6 Baggy Green caps. Times change quickly. A couple of all time greats quit, but Ponting and his arrogant buddies find it hard to come to terms with the reality.
Only two Indians (Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni) find place in the selection, with MSD as Captain of the side. While choice of most of the players appears to be obvious one, the selection seems to based on figures rather than quality. The skillful swing bowling of Zaheer on the unresponsive Indian pitches ought to have earned him a berth in the eleven in place of Sidebottom. Even Ishant Sharma, who as Peter Roebuck acknowledges, was outstanding, but is not there. I would have preferred Sehwag to Gambhir as a partner to Smith because of his effective spin bowling capability. Daniel Vettori too, has done well enough this year to warrant his inclusion.
Nomination of Andrew Symonds as twelfth man is amusing. Probably the panelists were embarrassed to find only one Australian , Mitchell Johnson, winning place in the eleven. While others have earned their place on the basis of their performance, Symonds too deserves his place, on the basis of his performance, off the field!
Read article in Sydney Morning Herald:
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