India's only World Cup winning-skipper, Kapil Dev was surprised that his former teammate and now chairman of selectors, Krishnamachari Srikkanth did not pick a second wicketkeeper in the 15-man India squad for the prestigious quadrennial event yesterday.

Parthiv Patel. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

"Parthiv Patel should have been taken as second wicketkeeper in the team. The World Cup is a long tournament. One cannot predict injuries and anything can happen. So, a back-up for India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have been helpful," the 1983 World Cup winner told MiD DAY yesterday.

Kapil is obviously speaking through experience. The skipper of the 1987 World Cup team had two specialist wicketkeepers in the squad ufffd Kiran More and Chandrakant Pandit. And on the eve of the semi-final against England at the Wankhede Stadium, when Dilip Vengsarkar was down with a stomach bug, the second 'keeper Pandit took his place in the team. Of course, India ended up losing that match. Kapil stressed that Parthiv is a decent bat too.
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Meanwhile, Srikkanth defended his committee's decision of going with one wicketkeeper by recalling the structure of the 1983 World Cup and 1985 World Championship of Cricket squads. "Kirmani was the lone wicketkeeper in 1983 and in 1985, we had only Sadanand Viswanath. Very rarely would you have wicketkeepers breaking down," said Srikkanth.

Otherwise, Kapil felt Srikkanth & Co had made the right calls. "Everyone's talking about Rohit Sharma not making the cut, but if you ask me, I think eight batsmen is more than enough.

"Rohit would have had to replace Yuvraj Singh or Suresh Raina and that would have not been right. Also, taking him at the cost of a third spinner, would have been a wrong call. We must not forget that the World Cup is being played in the sub-continent which will have turning tracks. Overall, I think the team picked is a good one and shouldu00a0 do well," he signed off.

Parthiv Patel.
PIC/GETTY IMAGES