Selectors to blame too

India's ouster from the Champions Trophy in South Africa will give rise to a plethora of post mortems. But alarmist views must not come in the way of true introspection. The recent triumph in Sri Lanka ensured that Mahendra Singh Dhoni entered the Champions Trophy as one of the favourites. India achieved a grand hat-trick of one-day triumphs in Sri Lanka, something that no other team can boast of doing in a country which is one of the hardest places to win at cricket.

A loss to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy was followed by a poor bowling and fielding performance against Australia, who looked to be firm favourites to win before rain played spoilsport at Centurion.

India's top billing in the International Cricket Council rankings notwithstanding, it has rarely gone the distance at world events. Sure, Dhoni was without key men like Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh and it is hard to replace players of such ilk, but the disheartening news is that the young guns who have replaced them don't offer too much promise. Success in 20-20 cricket does not guarantee success when it comes to the traditional one-day format.

The selection committee has to cop some blame too. Rohit Sharma ended up being injured for the Champions Trophy, but I don't think he was in the selectors' radar after the tour of the West Indies where
he batted thrice in four games without much success. During the T20 World Cup, young Sharma was made to open the innings when Virender Sehwag broke down. Players who are asked to perform extraordinary tasks must be treated with a bit more tolerance.

Spinner Pragyan Ojha showed much promise, but was shockingly dropped for leg-spinner Amit Mishra. Thanks to the BCCI's policy of not permitting the chief selector to interact with the press, we will never know the logic behind dropping Ojha. The decision to bring back Rahul Dravid after a two-year ODI hiatus raised questions even among the most levelheaded of critics.

Dinesh Karthik was the reserve wicketkeeper in South Africa, but the fact is that this team also has Dravid, who has kept wickets for India in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

Selectors need not be out and out ruthless but they ought to be wise. Now that they are paid by the BCCI, there should be a level of accountability too. The Champions Trophy ouster is good reason to make
a start.