The ultimate dream of an aspiring, young cricketer is to book a place for himself in the national team. And the national cap is a proof of this. Indeed, the world population is increasing from time to time.

As a result, the number of people who wish to enter the world of cricket as players is increasing at an alarming rate. The top cricketing nations in the world want to continue to dominate so players, who have worked hard in domestic cricket, might easily get a call-up into the national team.

India, for instance, has emphasized on the importance of a mix of the young and old. Greg Chappell, the former India coach, started this tradition through the rotation policy in 2005, which allowed newcomers to prove their worth at the international level.

Although Chappell’s tenure was forgettable in the history of Indian cricket, he could be given enough credit to have worked upon young players in order to win more matches for India in the future. RP Singh, for instance, earned his national cap in 2005 against Zimbabwe.

So did Suresh Raina, against Sri Lanka in the same year, at the time when the 2007 World Cup was just 18 months away and India was suffering a leadership crisis as well as team fighting.

These two players have turned out to be important for the Indian ODI team, and RP Singh is also a good Test match bowler. And since 2008, India has been giving away national caps to players than ever before. It is due to a phenomenon called the IPL.

There are many examples in this case, such as Pragyan Ojha, who had an exceptional first year with the Deccan Chargers, considering his team’s poor performance. In the same season, Manpreet Gony, a talented fast bowler, did well to steer the Chennai Super Kings into the finals, which allowed Dhoni to pick him in the playing XI in the Asia Cup, soon after.

Ravindra Jadeja played a crucial role in helping the Rajasthan Royals win and this made Shane Warne, his captain recommend him to play for India. And his wish came true in February 2009 when Jadeja made his debut in Sri Lanka.

And recently, R Vinay Kumar of the Royal Challengers Bangalore also played a match in the World T-20, after a terrific IPL where he finished in the Top 5 wicket-takers category and a decent Ranji Trophy too.

Abhimanyu Mithun also got his national cap in an ODI against South Africa in February 2010 when he ended as the highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy last season.

It is not just India, even England are following the same method by keenly following county cricket. Jonathan Trott was picked first in 2007 after a fantastic season with Warwickshire as England were looking to build a strong team in all three formats of the game considering a poor Ashes series and an extremely disappointing World Cup campaign in the West Indies.

One of the toughest selections that England had ever made was for the Ashes series in 2005. A young, swashbuckling batsman named Kevin Pietersen was picked ahead of a far more experienced and reliable Graham Thorpe in the squad of 15.

Michael Vaughan and Duncan Fletcher believed that a youthful English side was all that they needed to beat a strong Australian team, and that proved to be correct.

The transition happened in one series where Ian Bell and Pietersen played memorable knocks to get the Ashes back in England after a long gap of 19 years. Thus, in a country like England, where soccer is followed passionately by many youngsters, the ECB is giving incentives by allowing young players to enter the cricketing fray, in order to make their careers in cricket and help England become a top nation in cricket in the long-run.

Australia and South Africa are ranked highly in all three formats of the game as they believe that it is through playing T-20 for the national side, that youngsters can be tested and then can make the cut in the ODI and the Test teams respectively.

The performances in the IPL and the KFC Big Bash are crucial criteria for selection. For example, Australia’s team which made it to the finals of the World T-20 in 2010 had many players who played first in the T-20 format and then the ODIS. David Warner, for instance, played for Australia first in a T-20 game against South Africa and he made a name for himself in the same match to qualify for playing in the ODIs.

Players like Daniel Christian and Steven Smith are established, young T-20 players who are trying to pave their way into the ODI team as well. Australia have a strong and an overall young bowling attack in ODIS which can help them rotate so that the best XI can be chosen in major World Events or in important series such as the Ashes.

South Africa too have players such as Rory Kleinveldt and Loots Bosman who are T-20 specialists and are bound to be in the ODI team if they perform well in T-20s and domestic cricket. David Miller, too had a good T-20 outing against West Indies recently, and as a result earned a call-up into the starting XI recently, with South Africa axing JP Duminy!

Other teams such as New Zealand and Sri Lanka already have a good amount of youngsters playing at the international level. So, giving away national caps doesn’t make sense, though they should be doing this wisely in the long-run, in order to rise in the ICC rankings.

Minnows such as West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are not able to groom youngsters in order to mentally prepare them to play for their country.

Although the IPL and the Champions League has helped, yet their players are motivated my money and so would prefer playing more in such tournaments. And lastly, teams like Pakistan should be united enough to accept young blood in the side any further after the country has been suffering due to a callous administration, which has no interest in the welfare of the team.

Pakistani players also need to be taught that their country is more important to play for rather than themselves. It is only then that the meaning of giving out a national cap becomes more valid.

• Praveen Kumar
• Ishant Sharma
• Munaf Patel
• Ashish Nehra
• S Shreesanth
• Irfan pathan
• L balaji
• Sudeep Tyagi
• Ashoke Dinda
• RP Singh
• Ajit Agarkar
• VRV Singh

All these bowlers be it after injury or after a certain lay off seem to have either lost their pace or swing or their length. Something has definitely gone wrong. India has used all these bowlers in the last 5 years. None of them are a permanent fixture in the Indian team currently. To add to this Abhimanyu Mithun (taking nothing away from the youngster) has been added to the squad for the South African series. Starting right from the beginning

Praveen Kumar: This young man has a good set of skills in his kit bag. However, the only thing missing is the pace. He is still a handful and is perhaps the only bowler out of the above who can swing the new ball both ways. As far he is concerned more consistent performances in the domestic level along with pitching the ball up to the batsman could help him.

Ishant Sharma: This young lanky pacer burst on to the scenes in Australia troubling the likes of Ricky ponting and Matthew Hayden. However, after that golden year of his he seems to have lost out on all the pace he had. The nip back in to the batsman seems to be missing and the rhythm is just gone so much so that he was dropped for most part of the 2009 season in the Indian sub-continent. He needs to get his focus right and that will only happen if the training gets more intense.

Munaf Patel: Perhaps India’s most steady bowler. But, the thing that’s hitting him the most amongst competition is his inability with the willow in hand along with his miserable fielding performances. I still believe that Munaf would have been a regular in the Indian XI had his fielding been of decent standards. Munaf needs to come up with a couple of striking performances so that he is back in the reckoning.

Ashish Nehra: He played his last ODI in about 4 years in September 2005 against arch rivals Pakistan. After that he has suffered several ankle injuries hits and misses. He finally with his good performance with the Delhi daredevils in the IPL West Indies in the absence of Zaheer khan and assumed the role of the strike bowler pretty well. He provided good performances until the back end of the year where his form started to drop and he started to leak runs

S Shreesanth: India’s antic boy—S shreesanth has shown a lot of promise but delivered very little. Barring his performance in South Africa in 2006 shreesanth hasn’t made one series his own. The pacer needs to calm his antics down a little and pay more attention on getting his out swingers going at decent pace.

Irfan Pathan: India’s lost wonder boy. No one knows where he is—after one of the best debuts he could ask for irfan pathan has found himself wanting and is clueless what to do next. After showing himself as India’s next big thing Irfan pathan’s actual performance on the field has left a lot to be desired. The sad thing for irfan is that the selectors have lost hope in him and was seen missing from India’s top 30 squad for the champions trophy. Pathan seriously needs to get his act together and come up with a strong performance in this year’s IPL and show not just the selectors but the entire nation that he is still world class.

L Balaji: Balaji has seen misfortune like no other. After a wonderful start to his career down under that took shape in Pakistan in 2004-2005 balaji looked one for the future. However, after his wonderful tour of Pakistan he was hit by an injury spade which has haunted him ever since then. He did manage to make a comeback which perhaps was his last go and that failure certainly does not hold good for him. His future unfortunately looks a grim one.

RP Singh: RP Singh very similar to Irfan Pathan lost his swing and pace after a decent start to his career. However, the good thing for RP has been his performances in the IPL which has helped him gain a spot not once but twice although he seems to throw it away after that. Another good IPL performance should hold him in good stead and RP must make sure he grabs the next Indian chance he gets which might not be too far considering his colleagues bowling form.

Ajit Agarkar: Once, India’s young and only bowling prospect. Agarkar delivered for a lot of years. He has always been a wicket taker but his backdrop has been his leakage of runs which in this era will not do. Agarkar was a pretty handy bat down the order too with a top score of 95. The selectors seem to have look past Agarkar and its up to Agarkar who has to come up with some strong performances in order to be back in the reckoning.

Sudeep Tyagi, Ashoke Dinda and VRV Singh: the three of them put together have only played a handful of matches. Out of the three Sudeep Tyagi looks the most likely for an Indian future and rightly so. The young pacer very similar to Ishant Sharma has to make sure that the pressure and success of international cricket doesn’t get to him. As far as the other two are concerned they need to continue the good work and give good performances in both the IPL and the ranji trophy.

India have their batting sorted; but the bowling continues to be a big worry. Zaheer khan seems to be the only one to be missing in the list due to his continual strong performances in spite of all his injuries. The long and short of it is that: You need 20 wickets to win test matches on a continuous basis. In comparison to top ranked teams Australia seem to have a super pace battery with Johnson , Lee, Clark, Bracken, Siddle, Hilfenhaus, Bollinger, McKay, Tait and now Harris all rearing to go and firing on all cylinders when fit.

As experts say gyms and training is all worthwhile but the only thing that helps bowlers is spending hours and hours at the nets doing nothing but BOWLING!!!

West Indies

Everyone expected India to be tough competition after their mouth shutting win over Indies in 1st ODI but contrary to all the expectations India came out loser. Dhoni’s guys were even worst comparative to gully cricket players. Top order batsmen were playing sneaky shoots and it was apparent with their batting they don’t possess any knowledge about the technicalities of batting and foot work. Trio Rampaul, Taylor and Bravo most often deceived the batsmen by forcing him to take silly shoots to the slip and gully and often succumbing to in swing Yorkers. Indies trio took the toll over the Indian batsmen; Karthik (4), Ravindra Jadeja (7), Harbhajan (7), including three ducks Gambhir, Rohit and Yusuf. Dhoni’s 95 runs innings was well received which dragged out India out of the mayhem when India was crumbling at 82 runs at the fall of 8 wickets.  Partnership of Dhoni and RP Singh stabilized Indian innings while in the middle order Yuraj singh (35) was the sole contributor of double figures. India aggregated only 188 runs of all out in the 48th over; 189 runs target was easily achievable for the team like West Indies.

Indies bowlers were outstanding and Indies Trio (Rampaul, Taylor and Bravo) flabbergasted Indian batsmen. Indies trio were acquainted of the Indian team vulnerability to shot pitched bowls and often they succumbed to it.  Indies trio caught the weakest point of the slip area of Indian batsmen and also found them to be inept in foot work thus Indies trio consumed this weakness of Indian batsmen. Return of Rampual came as the rejuvenating spirit to the Indies bowlers that enhanced their support and skills.  Inexpensive Indies trio Rampaul took 4 wickets and Taylor and Bravo took 3-3 wickets.

Indies got the 189 runs target which was too easy for the Gayle’s company and they achieved it without any hindrance. Gayle charged with 64 runs coming off 46 bowls hence giving the West Indies innings head start. In the 15th over Gayle got out then Sarwan (15) but the damage was done and nothing but the formality was left for Indies to end the match. Not out Runako Morton knocked 85 runs off 105 bowls and not out Chanderpaul knocked 18 runs off 41 bowls finishing the match in the 35th over leading Indies to 8 wickets win.

Indian batting lineup has always been most powerful; each Indian batsman has on and off made bowlers sweat and frown over their own ability. On 26 June, at Jamaica again we saw Indian batsmen joshing and bashing Indies bowlers. Gautam Gambhir (13), Rohit Sharma (4) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) left the ground scoring inexpensively. Beside that Dinesh Karthik (67), Yuvraj Singh (131), MS Dhoni (41), not out Yusuf Pathan (40) and not out Harbhajan Singh (21) rampaged the pitch and not a single corner left where ball didn’t transgressed the boundary. Indian batsmen were unstoppable and Indies bowlers each trick seemed nothing but desperate plea. Yuvraj was everywhere in the scream of crowd and commentators, simply marvelous innings we saw coming from Yuvraj charismatic batting leading India to mammoth score of 339 runs off 6 wickets in 50 overs.

West Indies bowling was at its worst, each player economy reaching above 6 runs per over. Jerome Taylor, Lionel Baker and David Bernard took 1-1 wicket and Dwayne Bravo took 2 wickets. West Indies Bowlers gave batsmen ample space take shoots and every trick of in swing or off-spin was worthless in front of Yuvraj and Dinesh.

Indies got huge pressuring 340 runs target, yet it was difficult to achieve but it was never impossible for Indies. Indies got good start by Chris Gayle (37) and Runako Morton (42) and middle order played above average; Sarwan (45) and Chanderpaul (63) snatched the chance for Indies but the wickets kept falling not single batsmen after them sustained on pitch to lead Indies. Eventually when victory seemed near they all got out at 319 in 48th over by Indian bowlers.

Return of Nehra in team gave the boost to the Indian bowling. Indian bowlers fared well, RP Singh, Ishant and Harbhajan took 1-1 wickets; and Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan took 3-3 wickets. Though bowlers were not able to confine Indies batsmen but still Nehra, Pathan and other bowlers didn’t let batmen sustain on pitch.

Match concluded with the close win of India and man of the match to Yuvraj Singh. Contrarily Yuvraj poked sting like a bee, as Gayle predicted for Indies.