BCCI – Cricket India
It has been more than four months since Tendulkar’s Double Ton against the Proteas, the first by a batsman in the One Day Format. Since that blitzkrieg innings at Gwalior, Sachin is yet to add another ODI outing to his 442 ODI caps. And as it seems from the selector’s choice in team selection the ‘little genius’ will have to warm the benches once more at the upcoming Tri Series in Sri Lanka.
In the upcoming three nation series starting from August 10th involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand the India camp will miss the services of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, along with Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh. Yuvraj Singh makes his return to the squad after spending 15 months in the wilderness and constantly being sidelined by the selectors. The 28 year old gifted with the natural ability to whack bowlers all over the field will be coming back for his 251st ODI since his last outing against Sri Lanka at Dhaka in January this year. Though initially impressing selectors with a quickfire ton at the Practice match in Lanka, Yuvraj failed to keep the momentum going in the five day format and managed 57 runs from his two innings at Galle that included a fifty in the first innings, before being dropped from the Second Test.
Zaheer Khan’s injury keeps him off service and makes place for the relatively out of form Ishant Sharma. Young Sharma has scalped 56 ODI victims from his 41 outings but is yet to perform a repeat of his dream run against Ponting’s men Down Under in 2008-09.
Abhimanyu Mithun with his impressive show at Lanka has earned a call to the ODI squad replacing Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda. Dinda will now head to Australia to participate in the ‘Emerging Players’ Tournament’. Dinesh Karthik with his Man of the Match knock at the Asia Cup final retains his place as an opening batsman and in absence of Gambhir will function as Sehwag’s aide at the top.
The series with participation from Sri Lanka and New Zealand will have a league phase where each nation faces each other twice before the final on August 28th.GUBUK3Q2RKZG
Tags: BCCI, Cricket, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, India, Sachin Tendulkar, Sri Lanka, Tri Series, Yuvraj Singh
