A player who takes ten wickets in a match is picked for the Indian team to tour Australia. Another player who scores a century in the same game is not even picked for the India A team. Where is the logic behind this mode of selection?

And yet Sitanshu Hargovind Kotak had to endure this kind of heartbreak earlier this month. The 27-year-old left hander from Saurashtra had scored a brilliant hundred for Rest of India against Karnataka in the Irani Trophy tie at Bangalore last month. Along with Tamil Nadu's Kumaran who shot to fame with his ten wicket haul in the match, Kotak did the most to shape a Rest of India win over the favourites. And yet, while Kumaran was pitchforked into national reckoning, Kotak was out in the wilderness. There were some questionable inclusions and omissions in the India A side but these were overlooked possibly because both the teams were announced simultaneously. But even under these circumstances, Kotaks's non inclusion was made an issue. Not surprisingly, for if there was one player who deserved a berth it was this doughty Rajkot born fighter.

Kotak certainly took his omission hard. Who wouldn't, given the circumstances? Only last season, he had scored almost 800 runs in the Ranji Trophy, enabling Saurashtra to qualify for the super league for the first time. His selection for the Rest of India team was a just reward and Kotak made the most of the opportunity by getting 118 against Srinath, Ganesh and Kumble, even as only one other batsman got a fifty. Always the man for a crisis, Kotak relished the situation as he got his team out of trouble. Kotak is not the epitome of the traditional gifted and graceful left hander. He is on the other hand a pugnacious fighter, the kind of batsman any captain would love to have in his team.

Now however fortune has belatedly smiled on Kotak. The injury to Ajay Jadeja necessitated some changes. The India A captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar was picked to replace Jadeja and Kotak was chosen to take Kanitkar's place. As he flies away to the Caribbean, one only hopes that he gets enough opportunities to display his tenacious qualities.

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