Time to experiment

Wicketkeepers in Indian ODI teams have been mere passengers in recent years,with Rahul Dravid donning the gloves which enables the team to play 7 batsmen,a strategy which has met with quite a lot of success,regardless of what critics say.There has been the odd game when a specialist has played,like in Lords earlier this year when Dinesh Kaarthick was given a chance.

I myself am a big fan of the 7 batsman strategy, one of the reasons being that we do not have a wicket keeper good enough to bat 7. We have tried several wicket keepers: Sameer Dighe,Vijay Dahiya, Parthiv Patel to name a few but none of them met with much success.It was during the tour of the WestIndies that Rahul Dravid started keeping regularly,and he has carried on ever since. However with the selectors dropping VVS Laxman from the shorter version of the game, I believe the time has come to 'experiment' with a new gameplan.

Although Laxman might feel a bit hard done at being dropped,I believe it is the right move. With the result of the Bangladesh series a foregone conclusion, it would not harm India to play their new wicket keeper,Mahendra Dhoni,in all the three games. Dhoni batted beautifully in the games hes played for India A and is a powerful hitter of the cricket ball. This is the perfect time for India to try him out.If he proves himself capable to play at the international level,it would be fantastic for India as it would reduce the burden on Rahul Dravid.

Although VVS Laxman batted beautifully in the VB series last year,his inability to bat at positions but for number 3 affected the team balance. A good one day player must have the ability to adapt to different batting positions.
Tendulkar,Ganguly,Sehwag have all,at some point of their careers had to bat at positions alien to them,but they were good enough to adapt to the team's game plan. When Laxman bats at numbers 4 or 5,he struggles to keep the strike rotating as a major chunk of his runs are usually scored in boundaries.

India could always revert back to the 7 batsman theory if Dhoni at 7 doesn't work out very well but then,we got to give it a go!