Consistent four earn their rewards

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">MUMBAI:</span> What is so special about the four newcomers — Thilak Naidu, Siddharth Trivedi, Ramesh Powar and Mithun Manhas — that earned them selection among the Indian probables for the New Zealand tour? Consistent performances, no doubt. Barring Trivedi who is 21, the other three are 25.<br /><br />Take the new keeper, Thilak Naidu, third choice after Parthiv Patel and Ajay Ratra.The Karnataka lad had the best record of dismissals last season — 33 plus as many as 817 runs. These just could not be ignored. He kept wickets for Indian juniors before Ratra and Patel but has won recognition after them. In last season''s selections, the names of Vijay Dahiya and Deep Dasgupta kept cropping up, prompting the question ''why?''. In Naidu''s case it is "why not".<br /><br />Then the medium-pacer, Siddharth Trivedi. He claimed 33 wickets last season and played a role in Elite C team winning the Duleep trophy. He is another Junior World Cupper Class of 2002 — a teammate of Parthiv Patel. One who has been impressed by him is Dilip Vengsarkar who, in selection meetings of West Zone, never lost the chance to promote Trivedi, the Air-India lad. <br /><br />Genuine movement both ways is at a discount where today''s medium-pacers are concerned. So it is good that the selectors have recognised one of this tribe. Trivedi has gone to Australia under the Gavaskar-Border Programme to be trained at the Commonwealth Bank Australian Academy. Recent Aussie quickie Damien Fleming was to train him. Fleming was the master of cut and swing. So we can hope to see an improved Trivedi this season.<br /><br />Genuine allrounders have been missing in the Indian domestic scene. A new one to come to the fore last season was Ramesh Powar, the Mumbai batsman and offspinner. He scored 467 runs and claimed 20 wickets. Those runs may have been closer to 600 but for coach Chandu Pandit holding back Powar at Nos 8, 9 and even 10 as a surprise weapon for counter attack after the chips were down. As offspinner Powar got wickets at regular intervals. It was a pity he couldn''t play much in the Duleep trophy because of the strange selection of the final eleven.<br /><br />That all-time great off-spinner, Erapalli Prasanna, has pointed out that Powar has no follow through. Powar, now playing in league cricket in the UK, could seek the great man''s help during the Bangalore camp to fine tune his bowling. If he improves, he could take the load off Harbhajan Singh in the one-day side. In the wake of his finger injury, it would be unwise for India to expose ''Bhajji'' to both forms of the game.<br /><br />Finally, the fourth newcomer, Mithun Manhas. Actually he is no newcomer to selection. The Delhi lad was the sad figure in the famous flip-flop of selector Ajit Wadekar and secretary J Y Lele in 1999. Wadekar named Manhas as replacement for Amit Bhandari for the India A side to tour US. They later found out that Manhas was a batsman and then left him out after he attended the camp and picked Ashish Nehra.<br /><br />Manhas, however, has kept slogging at it and scored 674 from eight innings for Ranji semi-finalists Delhi to make it the list of probables. Can he and others go further than this? Not impossible if they grab every chance that comes their way.</div> </div>