The Indian selectors have a habit of throwing up surprises whenever they meet and they didn’t disappoint yet again as they picked the squad for the first two ODIs against the team that thrashed them 3-0 less than a month ago. While stalwarts like Sachin and Zaheer continued to miss out due to injury, it is just baffling as to how Virender Sehwag for fit for a couple of Tests but continued to remain unavailable even a month later.
Indian selectors goof up yet again
The biggest headline of the selection was the dropping of Harbhajan Singh after a poor show in England while Gautam Gambhir returned to the main fold after recovering from the concussion he suffered. The man of the series in the World Cup Yuvraj Singh remained unavailable for selection thus making it almost a second string squad that will face England in the ODI series starting in Hyderabad on October 14th. While Ajinkya Rahane and Parthiv Patel retained their places at the top of the order, Rohit Sharma’s finger injury rendered him unavailable for the opening two games.
Ravindra Jadeja’s all-round performances helped him retain his place thus continuing to keep the unlucky Yusuf Pathan out of the team. The middle order, with the exception of the now retired Dravid, remains the same with the onus on Kohli, Raina and Dhoni to handle the responsibilities while Manoj Tiwary also gets an opportunity to prove his worth.
The biggest goof up of the selection committee was the choice of bowlers picked for the series or rather the lack of quality bowlers in a vast country like India. While Zaheer, Munaf, Ishant and Sreesanth are all unavailable, Praveen Kumar has been handed the responsibility of leading an inexperienced pace attack which includes the uncapped Varun Aaron and Sreenath Aravind apart from Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav, who gets his second chance after he was picked for the tour of South Africa. The choice of the second spinner is even more interesting. While Ashwin keeps his place with consistent performances, Rahul Sharma’s showing in the IPL earned him a call-up. What is baffling is how the selectors opted for Rahul Sharma ahead of Amit Mishra or Pragyan Ojha, who hasn’t put a foot wrong in his short career. Also a certain Piyush Chawla, whose name comes into contention only when the World Cup is around, remains absent from the team sheet.
With cricket returning to India, flat decks, small grounds and huge totals is what can be expected and with an inexperienced squad like this, Dhoni’s boys have it up against them to repay the selectors’ faith in them.
Squad:
MS Dhoni (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rahul Sharma, Sreenath Aravind, Vinay Kumar.
Tags: Cricket, England, India, Indian Cricket Team, Indian Selectors, ODI Series, Squad
