Lame excuses for dropping Suraj Randiv

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

Suraj Randiv who is one of the most prolific bowlers in the ODI arena can consider himself very unlucky not to be in the final 15 squad for the World Cup which is undoubtedly the most decorated and prestigious cup in the cricketing calendar year. Most of the media have been ignorant about the omission of Randiv.

The selectors headed by batting legend Aravinda De Silva were of the view that Randiv was excluded to have variety in the spin bowling department. Ranjith

Fernando who is a part of the selection committee gave the lame excuse that Suraj Randiv's economy rate is more than five runs per over in the Domestic Premier league where Aravinda earlier said that Domestic performance would not be given a lot of importance. If domestic performance was given consideration the first to get in to the squad would be Chaminda Vaas with the bagful of wickets and his aggressive batting. Randiv's stats,figures and performances speak for himself as analyzed below and it would be a bitter pill to swallow for the selectors to drop the consistent Randiv for the jaded Ajantha Mendis and the less experienced Rangana Herath.

Stand out spinner in ODIs for 2010

Suraj Randiv has been the spearhead of the spin attack specially in the One Day Internationals where Muthiah Muralitharan was rested for a few tournaments and played only five games for the entire year. One must note that Suraj is an orthodox off spinner in the classical mould with a nice high arm action and with his height he gets a lot of bounce and has a lovely loop and his revelations in the air and off the track makes it difficult for the batsmen to pick him.

Suraj up to date has played 21 matches and has taken 23 wickets at a miserly Econ rate of 4.65 per over and also has a great strike rate of 43 and these stats are even of superior value as 13 of his matches were against the Kings of Spin - India and most of them on flat tracks where there is nothing at all for the bowlers.

Superb against India

He has done very well against India's batting juggernaut by claiming 12 wickets with a superb economy rate of just 4.57 while Ajantha Mendis who finds himself in the World Cup 15 has been hammered by the likes of Gambhir,Sehwag,Raina,Yuvraj and Dhoni. Mendis who started off with a bang against India has been easily dealt by the Indians and the record speaks to itself as Mendis who has played 6 ODIs against India in the season 09/10 has given away 334 runs with a high average of 83 and a poor 6.14 as his Econ rate per over. Mendis has taken just 4 wickets against the batsmen whom he tormented in 2008 and his strike rate accounts to an outrageous 81. Rangana Herath the left arm spinner meanwhile hasn't played much ODI cricket at all as he has played only 4 games in the year 2010.

Randiv is clearly the in form spinner at the moment and it is ironic that the selectors have to leave out the best spinner in ODIs citing reasons such as to facilitate variety in the squad and economy rate which are just excuses of dropping the consistent performer.

Isn't present form the single most important factor when considering for selection over other minor factors such as variety? Of course variety gives a lot of balance for the team but there isn't any advantage of having a bucket load of out of form different unorthodox bowlers over a solid,consistent and prolific bowler like Suraj Randiv. Selectors are of the view that since Muthiah Muralitharan is an off spinner,another off spinner cannot make the squad as there is Ajantha Mendis as well who bowls off spin and leg spin.

Out of form Mendis for Randiv?

Murali is our number one spinner and our most experienced player but the question to ponder here is how Ajantha Mendis who hasn't been in the best of form finds an automatic place in the squad over Randiv. Mendis was a batsman's enigma when he came to the scene and the mystery bowler troubled the best of players with his pinpoint accuracy and his dozens of variations. Mendis had a superstar debut and he bamboozled the batsmen in the early stages of his career but with the help of Video footage and by reading him off the hand batsmen, specially the Indians play him with ease now.

Mendis' extremely high economy rate of 6.14 against the Indians since the year 2009 speaks of high volume that he is being belted by the Indian batsmen and an amazing factor is that Mendis' main weapon which was accuracy is no longer there to be seen. He has been on the short side or on the fuller side for most of the occasions and he hasn't been using his variations to great effect and he was even dropped from the ODI side for a while. A fine example of the feats of these two spinners shows in the T 20 International against Australia in the T 20 World cup where Mendis was hammered for 42 runs in 4 overs without a single wicket while Randiv took 3 for 20 in the same match.

Even the lesser known players of spin,the Kiwis,the South Africans and the Windies played Mendis without much difficulty in the year 2010. The Kiwis who struggle against good spin bowling has played Mendis in 4 matches and have scored 105 runs and Mendis has only bagged 1 wicket.

True that Mendis spun a web around the batsmen in the Premier league this yea as well but he plays in the Tier B and most of the batsmen who face him for the first time find it difficult to read him.Randiv on the other hand didn't have a blockbuster beginning for his International career but since he is a classical off spinner, he dosn't possess the variations of Mendis but he has been very accurate in ODI and T 20 level and has acted as the strike bowler for the Captain Sangakkara whenever a breakthrough is needed.

Aravinda has kept on record saying that a player should at least have 50 matches under his belt as experience to play in the big stage. Suraj Randiv was given opportunities right throughout the past 18 months and he played almost every one day game and it appeared that he was moulded to become Sri Lanka's No 1 spinner after Murali in ODIs. The selectors have been hypocritical once again as Rangana Herath who is the least experienced of the spinners playing just 9 games and 4 games in the year 2010 has been drafted into the squad. The question here is if Rangana Herath was going to play in the World Cup why wasn't he played in more ODI games?

Herath for right handers?

Another prime example of this illogical and untimely decision is when Rangana Herath was parachuted in to the ODI team after 6 years for the Asia Cup citing the reason that since Herath is a left arm spinner he will be difficult to handle by the right handers,specially Pakistanis.

But the fact is that Rangana Herath never played against the Pakistanis and he surprisingly played against the team which had the most amount of left handers in India. So it wouldn't be a shock if Rangana Herath plays only the game against Pakistan as the controversy filled team seems to be a major concern for the selectors. It is true that the Pakistan test team struggled against the turn and variation of Herath but the present team has a lot of new faces and is right after a successful battle with the world's best left arm spinner Daniel Vettori.

Rangana is a good bowler against right handers but he struggles a bit when it comes to left handers as he turns the ball in the lefties find it easy to nudge it to the gaps and pinch the singles. So why such specific theories of using him against the right handers where teams have the creme a la creme of left handers in the top including the likes of Hussey, Smith, Yuvraj, Raina to bowl against?

Besides Rangana Herath wasn't successful in the recently concluded Premier League and only bagged two wickets in 5 matches with a staggering strike rate of 122.5. On the other hand Randiv played only 4 matches claimed 6 wickets and with a superb strike rate of 32. It is clearly evident that the selectors went for the containment of Rangana Herath rather than for the aggressive genuine wicket taker Randiv for reasons best known to themselves.

According to stats,figures,analysis and performance on field Randiv is ahead of Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath as a more wicket taking and economical bowler. He is also a brilliant fielder and one of the bests in the current Sri Lankan line up and is a livewire in the Cover region. He is no mug with the bat and can play defensively when needed and also chips in with a few handy runs low down the order. With the exclusion of Randiv not only we miss our most in form and consistent spinner but we also would have a long tail in the batting order.