Age, reality catch up with WC's Big 5

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 05 Desember 2014 | 21.24

MUMBAI: How do you spot a waning star? For starters, you can ask the Sandeep Patil-chaired national selection committee which has decided to do away with some of India's biggest household names from the 2015 World Cup provisional list on Thursday.

Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan - the men who helped captain MS Dhoni get his hands around the World Cup in Mumbai four years ago and were also meant to be a bridge between the retired Indian greats and the Gen Next, couldn't even make it into the 30-man list forwarded to the International Cricket Council for the 2015 World Cup.

While some saw it coming, given their issues with form and fitness in recent times, the selectors' view that these proven match-winners aren't good enough to feature even in the top 30 in the land is sure to raise a huge debate, if not a furore, among connoisseurs.

The call to leave them out looks more like a BCCI policy decision rather than pure selectorial wisdom. That said, Patil and his colleagues do have a point when it comes to the non-inclusion of Zaheer and Sehwag.

Both are on the wrong side of 30 and Zaheer, at 36, hasn't had a bowl since April this year. There's talk that the left-arm seamer may even struggle to play for Mumbai this season given his lengthy recovery time.

Sehwag, though has tried everything he could to regain his mojo. Over the last couple of years, the 36-year-old has worked doubly hard on his batting and even more on his fitness to regain his touch, but fate has not been with him.

Barring a few attractive innings in the IPL, he hasn't really set domestic cricket alive.

Yuvraj, Gambhir and Harbhajan, however, are very much still in the game. They may not be in form, but they do have pedigree and the stomach for a fight, attributes that are needed during a multi-team event.

The case against Yuvraj, apparently, is his struggle in the World T20 final in Bangladesh where he failed to put bat to ball. But in a fifty-over game, the batsman does get time to find his bearings in the middle.

Maybe, he needed a ray of hope to lift himself for one more shot at glory.

Gambhir and Harbhajan are feisty characters, the types you would want next to you in a scrap. The current crop is undoubtedly talented but they haven't really been tested in choppy waters.

What's next for these men? The selectors have bared their cards and although there is an outside chance to make it to the World Cup squad, they may have to keep the hunger alive to play in the IPL for a few more years.

Times View

Much of the attention on the selection of 30 probables for the World Cup in Australia next year has centred around whether senior stars like Sehwag, Yuvraj, Gambhir, Harbhajan and Zaheer would be picked.

To be fair to the selectors, it should not really come as a surprise to anybody seriously following the game that none of these stars has made the cut.

Their contribution to Indian cricket, individually and as a bunch, has been immense, but their time is up. If there is a surprise in the list of probables, a small one, it is the absence of Naman Ojha, who has done enough as wicketkeeper and batsman to have won the nod.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Zaheer Khan,Yuvraj Singh,Virender Sehwag,Harbhajan Singh,Gautam Gambhir

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