Who will be in the dream-team?

With the World Cup round the corner, the Indian cricket team has to make some quick decisions.

A fter the attack on Greg Chappell by a Neanderthal in Cuttack, a news channel ran a spoof in which a Chappell dummy favoured three separate teams for Tests, one-day, and Twenty20 matches so that at least one player from every state and Union territory could be accommodated.

In spite of the show's levity, it rang true. As Umpire's Post pointed out last Sunday, India's cricket team fielded 25 players in 30 matches last year "" 10 played five games or less "" and the rank continues to swell.

The door did revolve even during the Wright-Ganguly era. However, they mentored strong forces within the 16. The pillars have crumbled under Chappell-Dravid. The distressing result is that, with only half a dozen matches to go, we are not sure of our World Cup line-up.

All we have is an unwieldy list of 30 probables and a fluid 16 for the current series. Of the probables, Parthiv Patel, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Ishant Sharma, Rajesh Pawar and Cheteshwar Pujara are clearly just making up the numbers.

Even the real probables are full of uncertainties. Joginder, brought in from the cold, is out after one game. R P Singh is out after none. Pathan, sent back unceremoniously from South Africa, has ostensibly regained his form after one Ranji game against Mumbai. Jaffer is not even among the 30. Who will open? Six "" Sachin, Sehwag, Ganguly, Uthappa, Gambhir and Kaarthick "" can.

But Sehwag is not in the team at present. Will we play two spinners or one? Which one? Who will get the new ball? Is Mongia still in the scheme of things? What about Lakshman, our best limited overs batsman two seasons ago? Can we play both the wicket-keepers? Will Yuvraj's knee take hold out? Even though all of Chappell's power point presentations to the board have focused on the World Cup, he, or the skipper, has paid little heed to stability.

The most confounding, and symptomatic, case is the one involving Kaif and Raina. Kaif, a proven performer topped the batting averages (51.25) in the one-day series in the West Indies, the World Cup venue, with 205 runs.

Even under the less than benevolent tutelage of Chappell and Dravid, he has scored 893 runs at over 33 apiece in 38 matches. Raina has played 35 matches under the new regime, scoring 589 runs at under 27. He has played only one memorable knock in his career. Yet, Raina looks certain for the World Cup and Kaif does not.