Team India in 2017

It was a strange feeling not seeing Dravid and VVS in the batting card for team India last week in the first test against Kiwis. The team was without the services of the two veterans after almost 15 years. 

With 5 out of the 11 players in our squad in their 30's, we should be prepared to see more such replacements in the near future. 

Keeping that in mind, youngsters like Pujara and Kohli have shown tremendous promise and considering the performance of recent Under 19 team, the future of Indian cricket looks bright.

Here's a prediction for the Indian test team 5 years from now keeping in mind the 7 batsmen 4 bowlers combination used often by the Indian team. In bracket the members of the current playing 11 which they will replace are shown.

• Ajinkya Rahane (Gautam Gambhir)
• Unmukt Chand  (Virender Sehwag)
• Cheteshwar Pujara
• Virat Kohli(c)
• Manish Pandey (Sachin Tendulkar)
• Suresh Raina
• Parthiv Patel (wk) (MS Dhoni)
• Ravichandran Ashwin
• Umesh Yadav
• Harmeet Singh (Pragyan Ojha)
• Sandeep Sharma (Zaheer Khan)

While its almost certain that players like Pujara, Kohli, Raina, Ashwin will be there for many years to come (hoping that they are not prone to any career threatening injuries), players like Sandeep Sharma, Harmeet Singh, Manish Pandey also present a strong case for themselves.

Parthiv Patel (27) would be my choice to replace Dhoni unless we find a young keeper who can be reliable with the bat too. Parthiv would also provide a variation in the batting as he is left handed. Likes of Rahane, Chand and Manish Pandey can be the replacement for Gambhir(31), Sehwag(33) and Dhoni(31), Rohit Sharma may also be a probable but I don't want to hurt the public sentiments by including his name after his dismal show in Sri Lanka.  

The role of left arm spinner in the subcontinent is absolute vital and it is performed very satisfactorily by Pragyan Ojha for India right now. Although there will be no surprises if he represents India for another 7-8 years, the recent U19 star Harmeet Singh might also turn out to be an India regular. The left arm bowler was impressive in the U-19 world cup and he managed to impress pros like Ian Chappell with his bowling. He showed glimpses of Bishan Singh Bedi using the depth of crease and flight to great advantage. Chappell in his column for cricinfo went on to say that Hareet Singh was good enough to be a part of any test team except England(which already has a world class spinner in Swann).

In the fast bowling department, Sandeep Sharma looks a bright  prospect for team India. Sharma is the recent Indian pace sensation who performed brilliantly in the recently concluded U-19 world cup where he bagged 12 wickets during the tournament including a 4-wicket haul in the final. He was impressive with both his swing and pace and he and Umesh Yadav will certainly be a lethal combination as the former uses the swing to a great advantage and the latter uses his pace and seam.

Let's see how many of the above 11 manage to be there 5 years from now, they might be replaced by an even more skilled bunch of players as the time passes. Australia failed to find successful replacements for the legends like Hayden, Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath which resulted in Australia losing its dominance. Its important for India to keep preparing the young breed which can successfully fill the boots of the current stars. As the lovers of the game, we are in for some exciting times as the next generation of Indian cricketers takes over from the current pros.