Can a team have 11 openers?

We exaggerate, but looking at the Indian team "experiment" it feels like they are having an audition for the opening spot. In the first and the second ODI's, Ganguly and Gambhir opened, Gambhir and Robin Uthappa opened in the third ODI. For the sake of symmetry, Saurav and Uthappa should open in the 4th ODI. Anyway, all three had success opening. Tendulkar has opened the batting with Ganguly for a long time and they were highly successful. In the last year or so, Dravid, Dhoni and Irfan Pathan opened the batting.

By the way, let's not kid ourself, Virender Sehwag will be included in the team going to the West Indies for the World Cup if he plays one good knock in the 4 ODI's against Sri Lanka starting in February. Virender Sehwag was dropped as much to lose weight and get his head straight then due to bad form. Mark our words: He is coming back for the World Cup. The Selectors will not have the gumption to drop him from the team for the World Cup. To be honest, we are quite fond of Sehwag and would love to see him back in the team and firing on all cylinders.

Since Sehwag will be in the team going to the World Cup, either Gambhir or Uthappa will be left behind. The Fourth ODI between India and West Indies may very well decide their fates. We prefer Robin Uthappa. With Ganguly back, we feel that there is no need for Gautam "poor man's Ganguly" Gambhir. Gambhir may very well turn to be a world class player (we doubt it) but his time is not now. We could be wrong and Dinesh Kaarthik might be dropped and Gambhir could take his spot.

So, where does that leave us?
We have Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, and Gautam Gambhir (If Kaarthik is dropped) vying for the opening slot, which is just ridiculous. Maybe Tendulkar will be asked to bat at number 5/6 to beef up the middle order.

Where are we going with this?
If the middle order has been a problem for the Indian team, why are they looking at openers? We agree that even though Gambhir and Uthappa are openers they wouldn't hesitate to bat down the order if given a chance to play for India. They might even make for decent middle order batsmen.

Instead of making openers fill the middle order, why not look at middle order batsmen? Who, you ask?

Suresh Raina: He should be given a few chances, we know that he has not been doing well but we feel that he should be persisted with because he is extremely talented and is a superb fielder.

VVS Laxman: We know that he doesn't like to bat in the middle order. But, in Laxman's case a few exceptions can be made. Sehwag and Ganguly would open and Laxman would be sent one down, followed by Dravid, Tendulkar, and Yuvraj. There, the Indian middle order is fixed. The draw back being...really we don't see any drawbacks here.

We also like Dinesh Kaarthik, not only can he bat but he would also be the second wicket keeper if Dhoni gets injured. Even otherwise, he is a great in-close fielder and India needs all the fielding help they can get.

We thought of Kaif too, but decided against him since he likes to bat up the order and there is no spot for him there. His chance will come.

So there you go...