Parthiv Patel deserves a place in the Indian Team

Parthiv Patel scores a century against Bengal at Eden Gardens Dec'2006

I might be biased. But I admire this guy. Look at his temperament and maturity at such a young age. He is the captain of the Ranji Trophy team of Gujarat.

I like his batting style. He opens in style. Look at his exploits in Australia and Pakistan. I think he has a very dependable technique. He is also hard hitting. He pulls, drives and cuts with so much passion.

If I go by the challenger series and the ranjis, his keeping has also improved. He is more of a gymnast the way he go for the ball.

And you know his appeals behind the stumps. He was fined once.

So why he should not be in the Indian squad. Pat Symcox said Indians lack a left hander. He is the one. I would invite your contention and why he should not be in the team?

Few pics of the future little master..............

ICC Championship: Indian-Australia: what a convincing loss

Is it the team selection or again the same attitude problem that grips Indian sports, whether it is cricket or hockey.

Thank heavens that no new countries are taking into cricket! Else Indian cricket would have had the same fate as that of Indian Hockey.

The first few overs reminded me of Sanjay Manjrekar's article about Sachin Tendulkar. The article seemed so true to me. Tendulkar definitely has a attitude and confidence problem with the better bowlers. Is he really afraid of another surgery? Tendulkar's wicket might be a great joy for the Australian bowlers but for me it was something that was very soon expected going by the master batsman's approach to the game today.

Next came Dinesh Mongia. I frankly do not know his credits that made him to the team but whatever game I have seen of him, I think there are better batsman for this job in India. It is definitely a selection problem. Parthiv Patel is definitely a better batsman with a better temperament to play pressure games. I can never understand why is he not in the team inspite of his great batting showmanships in the challenger series and previous to that in Australia against the Australians as a opener.

Is the selection process straight-jacketing him as a wicket keeper? Are we ignoring a great batting talent just because he happens to be a wicket keeper and Dhoni is playing his best as a wicket keeper batsman? Rahul Dravid was a wicket keeper too but he came to the team as a batsman and it is for all of us to see what he has contributed to the Indian team.

We had wasted too much time by the time Mongia departed. Kaif was under the pressure of too many failures. What can we expect? We played a very mediocre innings. Whats worrying is the lack of the fighting spirit, the lack of a positive approach to every ball.

Only Sehwag and Dravid showed that positive outlook. Here the coincidence is that Manjrekar was the comentator. He very rightly said during the game when Sehwag and Tendulkar were batting that Sehwag do not bring baggages to the field. He plays his normal game even when he is not been performing lately. Every game is a completely new game for him. And he approaches each new game with the same positive outlook. It somehow seemed to me that Manjrekar was actually talking about Tendulkar and was reminiscing about the truth of his article a month back.

The key to any sport as always is the winning spirit and this takes me back to the Ganguly era... He could somehow bring out the fighting spirit of players like Yuvraj, Kaif, Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan. Look at how they are languishing at the present. They have talent and so they would surely shine once in a while but look at the trend... I dont see the fighting spirit that they had. No way I am suggesting Ganguly should be back.

I really dont have the answers.... and would really want everyone to think that they dont have the answers and so everone should try to discover new answers.

Lets all find the answer. I am sure it wont be difficult. And this answer would lift Indian sports and not only Indian Cricket.