Aus series will be final frontier for Indian seniors: Border

Sydney: Former Australian captain Allan Border has said it wasn't a wise decision on the part of the Indian selectors to pick a team with five players who are on the wrong side of 30.

The Indian selectors on Wednesday picked a 15-member squad which included all the tried and tested players - Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman - all of who are over the age of 30.

Border told Fox Sports, "You look at that squad, you talk about Dad's Army, the Australians, that's a very, very old Indian side. 

Border also reckoned that the Indian selectors took a defensive approach by picking a tried and tested team. He said, "The Indian selectors are just going with their tried-and-tested performers, particularly against Australia."

Border also said he thought the Australia series would be the last opportunity for the five Indian seniors to perform and go out with a bang. He said, "They want all the experienced guys there, and their hard heads, and I'd say this will be the final fling for that group of players. India will need to move on with younger players shortly, but I get the feeling that this is the final frontier for these guys

"They want to play Australia for the last time in their own country, and go out with a bang.

"They've had some reasonable form of late but they continue to disappoint at times. They do tend to lift against Australia and I think the selectors are saying 'we'll go with the hard heads one last time and we can't be held accountable if we throw some young fellas in there and they get beaten'.

"This way, they can give the big names their final go at it and, if they're unsuccessful, they're quite justified in changing. Even if they are successful, I get a feeling that quite a few of them will say that's enough.

Commenting on the Indian team, Border said he'd have preferred if the Indian selectors decided to go the way of youth, instead of picking the experienced players. He said, "It's a good side on paper but you would have liked to have seen some more younger names like Subramaniam Badrinath thrown in there with potential to make the starting line-up, but not to be.