Ahead Cricket World Cup, Indian Selectors Crack the Whip

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On Tuesday, as the Indian cricket team for the Asia Cup, a four-team tournament that includes Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, was announced, it was revealed that two key players – batsman Suresh Raina and bowler Ishant Sharma — had been dropped.This was a statement of intent from the Indian selectors after a string of poor performances in South Africa and New Zealand, where the Indian team failed to win a single game. The decision is especially significant as it comes a year before the cricket World Cup, to take place in spring 2015. India will be the defending champion, having won the last World Cup in 2011.

Raina and Sharma had been producing below-par performances for several months. Raina, an aggressive left-handed batsman, had scored just one 50 in his last 24 innings. Sharma, a fast bowler, had proved ineffective in either bowling economical spells or taking a large number of wickets – both invaluable aspects of international bowling.

In the eyes of some critics, Raina and Sharma had been given an unusually long rope, by the ruthless and competitive standards of Indian cricket, because they were seen to be close to the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dhoni is the most successful captain in Indian cricketing history. Apart from having led the side to victory in the 2011 World Cup, Dhoni has a number of other significant triumphs to his name, like the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. His winning percentages as a captain are also higher than those of any other Indian captain in the past who has served for a significant length of time.

All this has earned him respect and clout that few captains in the international arena can claim to match. Mostly, the selectors and the Indian cricket establishment have been happy to go along with his instincts and opinions. However, after dismal performances in South Africa and New Zealand, the dropping of Raina and Sharma suggests that the selectors are now beginning to have a greater say in the direction of the Indian team.

Michael Bradley/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Cheteshwar Pujara, an Indian batsman, playing a shot against New Zealand on day four of the first test match in Auckland on Sunday.

Equally significant is the inclusion of Cheteshwar Pujara, a fine young batsman who has been India’s top performer in test matches, the longer, five-day version of the game. Despite his exceptional performances in test matches, Dhoni had seemed reluctant to include Pujara in limited-overs cricket. This meant Pujara remained excluded from the side in the shorter, more attacking version of the game.

Yet Pujara’s inclusion in the side is another instance of the selectors’ prevailing over Dhoni. Having allowed the captain to go along with his chosen players, who returned poor performances, the selectors seem to have decided that Pujara is the kind of technically correct player who will thrive on the bouncy pitches of Australia and New Zealand, where the World Cup will be held.

The cricket World Cup, held every four years, is the most important tournament in the sport’s calendar. On the Indian subcontinent, where the sport elicits a passion greater than in any other part of the globe, the World Cup arouses a hysterical, near-religious fervor. India’s performance in the World Cup is critical to the good will and well-being of its cricket establishment.

Given the importance of the World Cup, the selectors have intervened in what was becoming a faltering buildup to the tournament.

“Sandeep Patil is a no-nonsense guy,” said Vijay Lokapally, a senior cricket writer with The Hindu newspaper, referring to the head of Indian cricket’s selection committee. “He has shown in the past that he is not afraid to drop big players, and he has shown that once again.”

Both decisions – the dropping of Raina and Sharma as well as the inclusion of Pujara – have been largely endorsed by the Indian press. “Finally, the selectors ran out of conviction that Suresh Raina and Ishant Sharma would overcome their failings and duly weeded them out,” wrote The New Indian Express newspaper.

Most publications expressed similar sentiments, suggesting the move was long overdue. “I can’t think of any bowler who has been given so many chances to cement his place in the Indian team and yet failed to do so,” said Mr. Lokapally, in reference to Sharma.

However, the effect of Tuesday’s decisions is likely to reverberate beyond the dropped players. This is an ominous sign to other indifferent performers in the Indian team that their fates hang in the balance. As this cricket-mad nation prepares itself for the sport’s biggest prize, the Indian selectors have made it clear that stragglers and nonperformers will no longer be indulged.

Vaibhav Vats is the author of “Triumph in Bombay: Travels During the Cricket World Cup.”