Mysorean

The tour would have been ideal to give Kaif and Yuvraj two Tests

— File photo: V.V. Krishnan

Mohd. Kaif.

This tour of Zimbabwe would have been ideal to give both Kaif and Yuvraj two Tests. But this would have meant Sourav Ganguly making way. And that's blasphemous in Indian cricket. The shootout then is between the two upstarts. Kaif wins that at the moment and his non-inclusion sends out the worst signal — performance doesn't count.

Indian cricket has been afflicted with myopia for a very long time. We have always been termed as natural players of cricket. Come to think of it now, I feel that the Cricketing World wants to brand India as a country that doesn't use its brain while making decisions regarding cricket. Rarely is there a strategic thinking to whatever happens. We are natural. And I tend to agree with the critics of Indian when it comes to such decisions.

It's poor thinking to drop Kaif for this tour. Probably, we could adopt the Australian "rotation" policy to have a succeeding eleven that's as good as the playing eleven. We have Life Memberships to the Indian Test team. You need to get in first, and then make either a double or a big hundred against either a Pakistan or an Australia. You are assured of your position for a lifetime. Only when Sachin has a tennis elbow or Rahul has a kabbadi knee, will youngsters even be thought of! Poor thinking!