Irani side crammed with usual suspects

India's rather unexpected advance into the semifinals of the ICC KnockOut has given a host of fringe players the opportunity to press forward their claims during the Irani Trophy match beginning at Mumbai on October 13. Rest of India are the holders having trounced Karnataka by an innings last season and should be favourites to retain their crown. There are very few surprises in the squad announced on Monday, crammed with all the usual suspects. Three members, skipper VVS Laxman, Shiv Sunder Das and Reetinder Sodhi were also in the eleven that beat Karnataka just over a year ago.

Sadagopan Ramesh and Shiv Sunder Das, team mates with Pentasoft, are the specialist openers. Ramesh began fluently last season against New Zealand but had to endure the disappointment of losing his Test place through injury. His Test record (843 runs at 49.58) is still too good to overlook and a good showing here will mean that Ramesh can demand a place by right for the one-off Test against Bangladesh early next month.

Das has had a busy summer at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, besides venturing to the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide for an intensive six week training regimen. He was in great touch during NCA's victorious march in the Buchi Babu tournament in August, slamming a marvellous 184 against Karnataka, and is also in contention for a Test call-up.

The middle order comprises VVS Laxman, Mohd. Kaif, Jacob Martin, Reetinder Sodhi, Virender Shewag and Abhijit Kale of whom the first four named are likely to make the final eleven. The selectors finally seem to have realised that Laxman ought to be considered as a middle order batsman and in that role he has few peers in the country as the clutch of records he broke last season indicate.

Kaif, who Andrew Leipus regarded as the fittest of the 23 probables at the camp before the ICC KnockOut, looks destined to ensconce himself for a long, long time in both the Test and one-day sides. He's not going to find it easy to break in though and will probably have to lock horns with Laxman to retain the Test spot he won against South Africa.

Sodhi unfortunately has been bracketed as a one-day player in spite of consistent allround displays in the first class game for several seasons. Frustratingly for him, Sodhi doesn't seem to be making no headway in cracking the one-day team either. It's not clear why the lad is being treated so shabbily. Jacob Martin missed a gilt-edged opportunity to cement a one-day place during the Carlton & United Series in Australia, hardly helping his cause by getting run out three times in five innings. He has a longer road ahead as do Shewag and Kale who both picked themselves after outstanding domestic seasons in 1999-2000.

Javagal Srinath was an automatic selection, getting the opportunity for a good workout here and he should be partnered by either Laxmi Ratan Shukla or Ashish Nehra. It was Nehra who robbed Shukla of a seemingly assured place in the eleven for the Asian Test Championship match against Sri Lanka in early 1999 but since then both their careers have plunged downhill.

While both deserve another look-in, I'd have thought Amit Bhandari was a better prospect. The Delhi lad's progress seems to have been momentarily aborted after the 74 runs he gave away against Pakistan in the Asia Cup in Dhaka. But it would be unfair to put him on the shelf on the scanty evidence of that showing. In the recent Buchi Babu tourney, Bhandari bowled genuinely quick, really letting it rip at times, and troubled the best from both the New Zealand Academy and the NCA.

With the selectors pursuing an avowedly youth-oriented policy, there was no place for the top four wicket takers in the Ranji Trophy last season, Kanwaljit Singh, Utpal Chatterjee, Venkatapathy Raju and Aashish Kapoor. Left arm spinner Murali Kartik had a rough Test baptism at the hands of the South Africans and later fell afoul of the NCA authorities over fitness problems. He will go head to head against Mumbai left armer Rajesh Pawar and similarly NCA team mates and fellow off spinners Sharandeep Singh and Ramesh Powar will also face a searching comparison.

Ajay Ratra gets to don the wicketkeeper's gloves as India struggle to find a durable keeper who can fill the gaping hole left by Nayan Mongia. The luckless Reuben Paul who was the early favourite for the ICC KnockOut suffers the misfortune of being overlooked for the Rest of India side as well. The speed at which candidates are being swapped in this department however suggests that his turn will come sooner rather than later. The Irani Trophy portends to be an accurate barometer of whether the young blood, currently queuing up in droves to gatecrash the national side, is indeed ready to stand the heat.