by Abhai Sawkar Interviewee - Vivek Nandigam
AS: I think a lot of folks agreed that Ashwin should’ve been one of the first names to make the XI for the WTC Final. Who would’ve been in your ideal XI? VN: I thought this should have been our XI. 1. Gill 2. Rohit 3. Pujara 4. Kohli 5. Rahane 6. Jadeja 7. Bharat 8. Ashwin 9. Umesh/Thakur 10. Shami 11. Siraj Ashwin should never have been dropped. More so because Aus have 5 left handers in the top 8. And how can you drop the top-ranked test bowler? This was nonnegotiable. Ideally, there could’ve been a toss up between Umesh and Thakur. Seeing Thakur’s performances overseas, he should get a long enough rope now. Umesh disappoints every time and bowls one good spell in a test match nowadays. AS: So for #9 you’re leaning more towards Thakur. VN: Right. For the batting skills he possesses and also for the knack of breaking partnerships. AS: And what do you say about Unadkat? I think he could offer some variety with his left-arm angle. VN: He could well have offered something different but in a final we need experience. Had Unadkat played at least 10-15 tests, he would’ve been ahead of Umesh in the pecking order. Here’s my XI for the 1st Test: 1. Rohit 2. Jaiswal 3. Gill 4. Kohli 5. Rahane 6. Jadeja 7. Kishan 8. Ashwin 9. Shami 10. Mukesh 11. Siraj I’d love to see Mukesh Kumar being handed a debut. He looks like our James Pattinson. AS: Now that we know Sarfaraz has missed out yet again, what do you make of that? VN: BCCI selectors have absolutely lost it. How can they possibly hand over vice captaincy to Rahane again? Sarfaraz averages over 100 in the last 3 seasons, and he should’ve debuted long ago. Easwaran or Panchal should’ve been picked instead of Gaikwad. They were ahead in the line.
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