A Costly Mistake

  According to my collection of statistics, Indian selectors have made a costly mistake of leaving out Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh from the world cup 2015 squad. These two players have a great world cup record in past, both of these players played 3 editions each and excelled in all three. Virender Sehwag had a reasonable 2003 World cup with a scintillating innings of 80 odd runs in losing cause final, a short stint of 2007 World cup was very good for Viru, as he made a smashing century and 2011 was the best world cup, as he scored more than 450 runs. Similarly, Yuvi had the same world cup history having a satisfied performance in 2003 World cup, a swashbuckling innings in 2007 world cup and who can forget his all round performance in 2011 world cup (He was man of the series).

 But, they had very ordinary form off late since 2013 start till date, both struggled to get runs on international circuit. But India is suffering a miserable time down under, many injuries, and many players are out of their regular touch. Likes of Shikhar Dhawan who is in poor form, also Raina, Dhoni is not in their great touch. I think Viru and Yuvi could have been included into the squad just to increase the level of experience. Also the inclusion of these two heavyweights would have pressurized the opposing team. They have the ability to reduce the moral of the opposition single handedly. This is my personal stance.

          But the numbers are matching my view point. Statistically speaking, both of these seniors are in substantial form in ongoing Ranji Trophy. Talking of Viru, he played 9 innings and at an average of 55.56 scored 500 runs with 2 centuries and 2 half centuries whereas Yuvi is in marvellous form played 10 innings and at an average of 62 scored 620 odd runs with 3 centuries and 2 half centuries.  These are current statistics (numbers) and now look onto the current Indian world cup team, Shikhar Dhawan is in awful touch, Rohit Sharma is injured, Rahane is more or less inconsistent, Raina is in bad touch, Dhoni is not in best of his forms. Bowling is also an issue but it was there from past (B.Kumar, Jadeja and Ishant are injured); but batting wasn`t an issue anytime, it is now.  Now, tournament is in Australia and New Zealand, they need a little amount of experience and Viru and Yuvi are acquaintance with it. But it cannot be helped now, I will hope India will do well and will retain the world cup 2015, best of luck Team India.