Vengsarkar's message 'perform or perish'

New Delhi: After two huge defeats against Australia, senior players of the Indian team are clearly feeling the heat with the chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar issuing a warning that nobody should take his place in the team for granted.

In an interview with the Mid-Day newspaper, chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar said, "There are many players like S Badrinath and Suresh Raina who are performing with the India A side. These guys are waiting for their chance and you cannot ignore them. It's a professional set-up and nobody can take their place for granted. Definitely the threshold has reduced."

India lost the second and third matches of the seven-match series against Australia by 84 runs and 47 runs respectively. The first match of the series at Bangalore was washed out but in that match, too, Australia scored over 300.

In the first ODI, only Sachin Tendulkar among the Big Three got a chance to bat but he was sent back by Mitchell Johnson without troubling the scorers.

At Kochi in the second match, Sourav Ganguly did not play due to a hamstring injury while Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid scored 16 and 31 runs each. The scene at Hyderabad was no different with Ganguly not in the XI and Tendulkar contributing only 43 runs in 71 balls when the asking rate was nearly six runs per over. On the other hand, Dravid was out for a duck.

Following the win in the Twenty20 World Championship by the young Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, there has been a clamour for giving more changes to youngsters in the One-Dayers and 'resting' the seniors players.

Vengsarkar also justified the selection of left-arm spinner Murali Kartik in place of off-spinner Ramesh Powar, who has been a liability in the field.

"If you get picked as a frontline bowler, then you have to bowl 10 overs. Plus, if your fielding is found wanting and you do not contribute with the bat, the team is obviously at a disadvantage. Ramesh has to get fitter and field better. He also has to improve his bowling," Vengsarkar said.

"Ojha is very young, just 21. It is not fair to unleash him against a side like Australia. We need to groom youngsters. Kartik is experienced and offers us better variation than two off-spinners," Vengsarkar replied when asked why Hyderabad left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha was not considered for the One-Day team.

The former India skipper also admitted that the Indian fielding is not up to the mark.

"We are not a great fielding side anyway. Australia saved about 25 runs on the field. If we had fielded that way, the match would have been much closer," Vengsarkar said.

Source: cricketnext.com