Indian Team Selection Is A Tad Surprising
The surprises in Indian cricket never cease, and this case is more pronounced when the same is to do with the team selection. The Indians selectors sprung in more than one or two surprises in the squad for the Micromax tri-series that will be played in Sri Lanka from the second week of August, despite the understanding that the World Cup of cricket is only seven months away.
So three senior members of the side, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623, Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar have all been afforded a chance to put their feet up and relax at home, even as they named the other 15 players who will feature in the squad for the three-nation tournament.This means that all of them have had a start-stop kind of an year so far, and that can hardly be a good preparation for the World Cup.
The tournament that starts from the 10th of August, with a game between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 will also see the hosts, Sri Lanka as the third side.
Amongst the other surprises, Yuvraj Singh was selected in the side, despite having had nothing to show for his return. Yuvraj had been shown the door for the Asia Cup after form and fitness had become two huge issues for the southpaw from Chandigarh.
The Indian bowling will continue to struggle though. The absence of their main pace bowler, Zaheer Khan will mean that Ishant Sharma will jump into the fray. Unfortunately for the Indians, Ishant has already been the bowler who could be relied upon to deliver the breakthroughs and this will hurt their chances. Incidentally, Ishant was out of the ODI side for eight months due to the lack of form, and will look to get back into rhythm for this format of the game. Fortunately for him, and the selectors, he would have played three Test matches in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, and that should allow him to loosen up enough.
With the selectors in a mood to experiment before the World Cup begins, Abhimanyu Mithun and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045, where he was steady, whereas Ashwin has played one game and impressed with his ability to maintain the lines and the lengths required from him.
The other youngster to make it to the squad is Saurabh Tiwary, a batsman from MS Dhoni’s hometown. Tiwary had played in the Asia Cup, but had failed to get a game, and will hope to make it to the playing eleven in this tournament at least once.
The bane of the Indian selections is the opening slot. Gambhir is struggling with his fitness issues, and the best that the selectors can come up with is Dinesh Karthik, who is a wicket-keeper. It is a surprise that the selectors did not name a http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Murali-Vijay-c78035 in the squad, despite being one of the reserve opening batsmen in Tests and T20 cricket. There are a couple of others who could have been tried out as well, but the selectors have decided to keep Karthik in their sights for now.
Thus, the 15-member Indian side will have six frontline batsmen, Sehwag, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashish-Nehra-c46293 and a couple of frontline spinners, Pragyan Ojha and Ashwin.
One gets the sense that Sehwag, Karthik, Raina, Kohli, Yuvraj, Rohit, Dhoni, Jadeja, Ishant, Nehra, and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Praveen-Kumar-c82600 should make it to the starting eleven in the first game. Since all the games will be played at Dambulla, where the Asia Cup was played, the Indians will go into the series with some kind of an advantage over, at least the Kiwi side.
Batting second at Dambulla under the lights will be a big issue.
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