Yesterday, home skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to emphasise on why the ODI series against Australia was the perfect platform for younger players from both sides to push for a World Cup slot.
Yesterday, home skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to emphasise on why the ODI series against Australia was the perfect platform for younger players from both sides to push for a World Cup slot.
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| Ravindra Jadeja and Harbhajan Singh celebrate the run out of Ricky Ponting during the Mohali ODI on November 2, 2009. PIC/GETTY IMAGES |
"It will be a big learning curve for all youngsters. It's very important to live in the present. I won't put extra pressure on them." Dhoni said on the eve of the second one-day international at Visakhapatnam yesterday.
The first match at Kochi was washed out on Sunday.
India could well play Ravindra Jadeja, the Saurashtra all-rounder who has come in for a fair bit of criticism.
Recently, former India batting star Sanjay Manjrekaru00a0wrote about how fortunate Jadeja is for being in the team. "As for Jadeja, someone out there likes him very much. After the Sri Lanka Tri-Series, no one expected him to make the cut. But here he is once again, donning the India colours," Manjrekar wrote in his Times of India column.
Former India batsman and coach Anshuman Gaekwad felt Manjrekar's comments were harsh.u00a0 "Sanjay needs to understand how lucky he was to have played for India. Jadeja is a boy from a small village and very few players who succeed at the domestic level have been successful at the international level," said Gaekwad.
The former coach felt that Dhoni's faith in the youngster should not be viewed with cynicism.
"There is something that the team management has identified in the youngster. We must support Dhoni's wisdom to back him.
"Yuvraj Singh hasn't established his place in any of the formats despite playing for 10 years. Hasn't Yuvraj been lucky to play for so long?" argued Gaekwad.
