season has commenced with a bang

The Indian cricket season has commenced with a bang. The ‘A’ teams from New Zealand and the West Indies along with the initial Champions League T20 games have brought quite a few of the young and ‘aspiring’ older Indian cricketers into the fray. The one that beats the hearts of the fans and followers is the form shown by Yuvraj Singh.

He seems to have come back with even more vigour, getting a scintillating century and two wonderful knocks against the West Indies ‘A’. Along with him the success of Parthiv Patel and Robin Uthappa has brought to the table more choices for the selectors.

The toughest task is going to be for the selectors. They had made a good concrete path to get young faces and it proved to be a success with the team winning the Champions Trophy in England.

Giving the seniors another opportunity to stake claim to their lost positions is a generous move but could cost the selectors embarrassing options when they chose the team.

The Indian batting for cricket’s shorter version seems to be flushed with lots of options, but one will have to also look at the correct combination for the Test side. Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay will need to tighten their technique a fair bit to be successful overseas and a few sessions under the watchful eyes of Sunil Gavaskar would be the best option for them.

Former players can help the young aspirants and somehow this approach is missed out on because of being reticent.

Gautam Gambhir, I recollect, took help from late Parthasarthy Sharma and came back to form thereafter. Also, it was nice to read that Robin Uthappa has recently done the same with Pravin Amre.

The sad tale is to see empty stands during all the recent ODI and Twenty20 games. We have built such wonderful new stadiums, but they seem to lack comfort and a hospitable experience.

Each hosting association should only be given a match once the basics are in place or else we will see the demise of the on-ground watchers and be dependent on eye ball figures.