|
September
08, 2008
 Anil
Kumble will lead a near-India team in the upcoming Zal Irani
Trophy match against last season Ranji Trophy Champions Delhi.
The Rest of India squad has most of the regular Indian Test
players with a couple of significant omissions in the form of
Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh. Ganguly's absence in the
squad leads to speculations whether the Selectors have decided
to make him the causality to rope in some young blood in the
batting. The Selectors have also named an India A squad for
the Tri-Series which also features the A teams of Australia
and New Zealand. S Badrinath has been named as the Captain of
this team.
The Rest of India squad was expected to be a
warm-up match for the Test players before the big series
against
Australia in October. Ganguly has been ignored
because of his limited fielding abilities along with his
moderate success this year in Test Cricket. The 36-year-old if
dropped for the 1st Test will find it difficult to get back
into the team this time round as he is only getting older by
the day and the Selectors have a bit of urgency to give
sufficient exposure at the Test level for some of the
promising youngsters such as Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma,
Badrinath and of course Yuvraj Singh. The Selectors have
hinted that Yuvraj Singh was not included because of his
fitness as he is having a bad knee. The Indian middle order
has been blocked with the presence of the so-called Fab Four
consisting of Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly and Laxman. But this
time, the Selectors seemed to have a plan in breaking that Fab
Four especially the way they came out croppers against Ajantha
Mendis in comparison with some of the younger players, who
looked pretty well against the same bowler.
The squad has a surprise pick in Bengal's
Ashok Dinda, who impressed one and all with his pace of over
140 kmph in the IPL. Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and RP Singh are
the other pacers in the squad with Zaheer likely to be rested.
There is also space for Mohammad Kaif in the middle order with
the other younger batsmen getting picked for the Australia A
Series. Meanwhile, the Selectors have given ample opportunity
for the Indian One Day players to warm up by including them in
the India A team for the Tri-Series.
The 5-day Irani Trophy match will be held at
the Moti Bagh Stadium in Vadodara from the 24th of this month.
Rest of India Squad:
Anil Kumble (Captain),
Wasim Jaffer,
Parthiv Patel,
Rahul Dravid,
Sachin Tendulkar,
VVS Laxman,
Mohammad Kaif,
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
(Wicket Keeper), Harbhajan Singh,
Pragyan Ojha,
Zaheer Khan,
Munaf Patel,
RP Singh, Ashok Dinda
India A Squad for Tri-Series:
S Badrinath (Captain),
Suresh Raina,
Robin Uthappa, Swapnil
Asnodkar, Rohit Sharma,
Dinesh Karthik (Wicket
Keeper), Abhishek Nayar, Irfan
Pathan, Praveen Kumar,
Dhawal Kulkarni, Piyush Chawla,
DB Ravi Teja, Yusuf Pathan,
Jaydev Shah, Wriddhiman Saha (Wicket Keeper)
|
