Tri-series squad: More R & R

This is India's squad for the tri-series involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand:

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Saurabh Tiwary

Sachin gets more rest from ODIs, which is fair, because the side can start to adjust to life without his mammoth presence, only for him to slot back in a few months later to win the World Cup. And then retire. It's the one great-looking piece of an otherwise ugly jigsaw puzzle.

Harbhajan gets some rest, because he's done so well. More importantly, it gives Ojha more games to try to prove that he's a better first choice bowler in the shorter formats.

Instead of giving him a chance to find form, the selectors have rested Gambhir. Why? So that Karthik, his replacement, can re-prove his benchability.

Snideness aside, the batting actually looks solid - and Kohli and Rohit Sharma will finally be tested against opposition that isn't Sri Lanka.

Yuvraj pops back into the squad, and I for one am confident that we'll be seeing the best of him at some point this series.

Weapons of mass futility Jadeja and Ashwin find seats on the plane (or boat, depending on the budget).

Saurabh Tiwary remains in the squad; he knows what drinks everyone likes. And Ishant Sharma's economy rate just isn't bad enough.

Mithun gets a chance to improve on his promising Test debut. Or get smashed around, we just don't have enough buffet bowling these days.

A series-winning squad? Maybe.

Something good out of it all

We've seen four days of cruelty to bowlers of all kinds. By we I mean you, because I haven't really bothered. Suraj Randiv is not exactly Murali, and there's no way in hell I'm going to watch him bowl 64 overs (a record workload for a debutant, btw).

I did, however, watch the highlights of Sachin and Raina batting. Totally worth it, and it only took 15 minutes of my time.

Sachin was never going to miss out on these easy runs, especially in this purple patch-ish stage of his career, and also after he'd avoided getting out to another debutant.

Obviously, what we all wanted to see was how Raina would fare in his first (well-deserved) chance in Test cricket.

He ended up with a fluent 120, and even though the pitch was flatter than ... something very flat, credit is due. He showed great composure in a crucial partnership (Sachin's always at the other end of these things) and then brought out his natural game (slogsweeps, etc.) when it was safe.

And then, later today, another supposed limited-overs specialist scored a fantastic hundred to dig his team out of trouble.

It wasn't Eoin Morgan's first game, but it was his maiden hundred and came against a much better attack on pitch much more bowler-friendly.

Five years from now we may not see any Dravids, but I probably won't mind too much. We may also see a bowling machine as a 12th man when things get nasty.

PS. Plugtime - My short story, Going Under, is part of the Watty Awards. Not my best - I was bored and I'd rather not attract plagiarists anyway. Please vote?

India v Pakistan is angry again

Seriously, did anyone enjoy those "Friendship" series a few years ago? Around that time India played Pakistan so frequently in a bunch of dull encounters.

After the customary tense political situations, of late we've only played Pakistan in major tournaments.

And in today's game, in a knockout situation for Pakistan, you could see that the spice was back. And I'm not calling Shoaib Akhtar 'the spice', but he was back too.

The Pakistan innings was still a tad lame, but when India came out to bat and the pressure built up, something was sparked between the two sides. And not in a romantic way.

There was Gambhir, showing off the hotheadedness that is taking his hair away. Or maybe Sehwag's doing it, his head looks fertile again. Anyway, Gauti's anger was directed at everyone's favourite toothy wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal, for squealing like the forbidden animal at every opportunity. The two lightweights looked ready to square off before Billy Bowden played killjoy.

There was Akhtar, because he's never out of it, even when he is. Akhtar v Raina, Akhtar v Harbhajan, he was nailing his sledging duties in the death overs. And all while getting smacked around, he must have felt so alive and involved again. Then he was kind enough to show Harby where the dressing room was, once the Good Surd had plundered a six to win India the game.

Good times.

The Asia Cup is important

I may have claimed otherwise in my last post, when I said it wasn't worthy of Sachin's presence (still isn't), but for for the rest of the team, there are things that need to fit into place.

The World Cup will be in the subcontinent, and India's first team need to see where they are. The ability is redoubtable, but they are back from a long break and they will need to iron out the kinks and get rid of the rustiness ahead of a busy, crucial season.

Obvious issues are

1. How we play the short ball
2. Our fast bowling
3. Fielding

That's pretty much all departments of the game, and #1 is why Pakistan's presence is important in the Asia Cup. They have three of the finest quicks in Asif, Akhtar and Aamer, and how we handle them could be indicative of how we might fare against other fearsome attacks like those of Australia, South Africa and Zimbabwe (I kid, of course). Dinda has made the jump to the big-boy team, probably for his yorker-filled death bowling. Most importantly, we need to find out if Dhoni will regain his magic touch.

Otherwise, the FIFA World Cup is on, it's bloody brilliant, and Argentina has begun well. Germany looks brilliant, England is meh, and Brazil scored two quality goals against a spirited North Korea.

I also submitted a short story to the Watty Awards - it's definitely not my finest, as I wrote it between two episodes of Family Guy. But check it out, it's not too long, vote it up or something.

Selectors make amends, and Sachin's out.

What a scandalous headline, isn't it?

The facts are quite boring. The squad for the Asia Cup has been named, and it's more or less full strength, except it isn't.

MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda, R Ashwin, Saurabh Tiwary.

Sachin wanted to spend more time with his family, so he was granted leave. Fair enough, he shouldn't be playing lame ODI tourneys like the Asia Cup anyway; he should only be playing important games, like against New Zealand (upcoming tri-series) or the World Cup (cricket).

Does anyone else think that he just doesn't want to see Sri Lankan faces? We've played 'em a while ago, we were just playing 'em the other day, and we're going to play them in Tests and ODI's next month. I'd want a rest, too.

Yuvraj Singh is out - whether due to injuries, form or brattiness, I can't confirm. But yeah, whatever, let him spend some time in the gym. Watching TV.

Dinesh 'Start-stop' Karthik has also been booted, as have Yusuf 'I'll hit them full but leave them short' Pathan and Murali 'test batsman but only in ODIs' Vijay. Rightfully so.

The pace attack looks solid with Zak, Nehra and PK. Real solid. Solid.

Dinda is their cover, so I assume Vinay Kumar hasn't recovered from whatever he's tweaked, because I don't recall Dinda doing particularly well. How is Irfan Pathan not more useful than either of those two?

Mishra loses his place to Ashwin, who impressed in the way only bit-part players can impress. Speaking of which, Jadeja has been retained. Fair enough, he did enough to avoid the axe, but not enough to avoid being always considered for it. Ojha, who I actually consider to be our best spinner on current form, is also there. Harby remains first-choice.

And the surprise of the day: Saurabh Tiwary, of Jharkhand and the Mumbai Indians, makes the cut. He was always on the radar because of his top form (domestic and IPL), but it's pretty strange that his chance arrives in the squad of the Asia Cup instead of the crap that just got over.

But hey, strange is the new normal, right?