Pick specialist openers, say Vengsarkar and Rajput

mumbai: chandu borde, the chairman of the national selection committee, had a hard time in new delhi last week, trying to convince the media about the wisdom of continuing with deep dasgupta as a makeshift opener. he was speaking after the indian team for the first test against nagpur, starting this thursday, was picked without two genuine openers. why india has failed to win a test series outside the subcontinent since 1986? one may point at the lack of a good opening combination.since 1993, we have invested in too many makeshift openers: nayan mongia, ajay jadeja, manoj prabhakar, rahul dravid, vvs laxman, msk prasad, sameer dighe, hemang badani and dasgupta. and the results have been far from encouraging. wasn’t a home series against zimbabwe an ideal opportunity to blood a young opening batsman? should this makeshift opener business continue? who will open on the tour to the west indies? is keeping ajay ratra out advisable? has dasgupta’s performance behind the wickets been impressive? over to former india captain dilip vengsarkar and mumbai coach lalchand rajput. dilip vengsarkar: the decision to continue with a makeshift opener beats me. frankly, it’s beyond me. what the selectors are up to? i can’t understand. it is the right time to groom an opening batsman for a long-term interest. if they feel we have to play six or seven batsmen against zimbabwe, then drop a middle-order batsman. after all, opening is a specialised job. a ‘keeper should be a ‘keeper first. batting is a bonus. i have nothing against deep dasgupta. if the selectors are so impressed with his batting, then play him as a batsman! according to me ajay ratra is an automatic choice as a wicket-keeper. if dasgupta can retain his place on batting strength, then why not turn rahul dravid into a makeshift wicket- keeper? after all, he has kept wickets decently in emergency situations. lalchand rajput: the selectors may have felt that it would be unfair to drop dasgupta. after all, he helped us save a test in south africa with his bat. fair enough. but what has he done after that? his wicket-keeping during the recent three-test series against england wasn’t impressive. while assessing a player’s utility, we must see how he has fared in a specialised position he was chosen for. our next tour is the west indies. we have to include three openers and two wicket-keepers there. have we spotted them? hardly. ajay ratra, who played against england in the one-dayers, looks a genuine ‘keeper. we should have given him confidence by picking him against zimbabwe. similarly, opener connor williams should have got a look-in.