A door is closed for truth, cards are arranged in the desk and pick whatever you want because you are accountable to no one.
Cricket: Indian selectors will be picking the players in assumptions
The Indian national team selectors headed by Kris Srikanth will meet on Chennai today to pick the Indian squad for first two One-day-Internationals against England starting on October 14th and three teams playing for the N K P Salve Challenger Series in Nagpur from October 10th to 13th. It is expected that both the Indian captain MS Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher will be present during the selection.
With the question for selectors still going strong in the media that what is the need to select the team 15 days prior to the first match especially when there are injuries waiting to be cleared by key players? But BCCI had decided to go ahead with their plans to select the squad for first two ODIs against England. Sehwag is surely going to miss the series with the shoulder injury along with Zaheer khan who will be out till December and Rohit Sharma. There are doubts over the fitness of star batsmen Sachin Tendulkar, All-rounder Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel who all are nursing injuries that happened during the England tour. But happy news is Gautam Gambhir is fit and he is getting much needed match practice in Champions League T20.
Having been already through a disastrous two months where India lost all their matches against England away from home because of poor selection of players (not match-fit players), selectors must be extra careful this time to pick full fit match players. The series against England at home is crucial for India to back in contention for top spot. So, they can’t risk full young team against this English team even though it is in home conditions. With most of key players having fitness problems, selectors and team management will be having hard time picking the team.
With only Praveen Kumar (he too struggled with ankle injury during England tour) deemed to be fit, the two seam bowlers spot are wide open. The experienced Nehra might be good option but he hasn’t played a match for last 4 months. Sreesanth is fit but risky. So, selectors are left to pick from fringe players like Vinay Kumar, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav and Mithun. India will breathe a huge sigh of relief since their spin departments doesn’t suffer from injuries like seam. Harbhajan is back from injury and expected to partner Ashwin in the ODI series.
Possible ODI squad (for first 2 ODIs): Rahane, Gambhir, MS Dhoni (Capt/wk), Kohli, Yuvraj/Tiwary, Jadeja, Sachin Tendulkar/ Parthiv Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Mishra/Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Nehra/Sreesanth/Varun Aaron.
Also India Red, Indian Blue and India Green teams will be announced by selectors where you can expect the names of promising youngsters and proven domestic performers in all three teams squad.
Well! Expect a couple of changes in Indian squad with injures as the series nears for kick off.
Tags: Chennai, Cricket, Duncan Fletcher, England, Indian Cricket Team, Kris Srikanth, MS Dhoni, ODI Series, Selectors
