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September
12, 2008
 Mercurial
all-rounder Andrew Symonds has been dropped from the
Australian Squad for the upcoming Test Series in India.
Symonds has been dropped based on disciplinary grounds and it
is a big plus for India as the all-rounder was averaging 70
plus in the last twelve months while also doing his bit with
the ball and on the field. The 15-man squad that has been
selected today has a lot of surprises with quite a few
relatively unknown names. The trio of Skipper Ricky Ponting,
Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee come back in the Australian team
after a slight layoff.
Andrew Symonds' omission was the big story as
he was a crucial player in the Australian outfit in all forms
of the game. The all-rounder's image in
the team took a beating after his negligence to attend a team
meeting and practice session ahead of a One Day International
Series against Bangladesh in Darwin recently. On his axing for
the India tour, Cricket Australia’s National Selection Panel (NSP)
Chairman Andrew Hilditch explained that “Andrew Symonds was
stood down for disciplinary reasons in Darwin and is now going
through a process managed by Cricket Australia designed to
give him time to assess whether he is fully committed to all
of the things needed for a cricketer to be a member of the
world’s number one team.
“Cricket Australia has told us that selectors will be advised
once Andrew can be considered again for selection and we hope
we can look forward to that advice in due course because as we
all know, a fit and fully-committed Andrew Symonds can be a
world beater.
“In the meantime, our advice was that he was not available to
be considered for selection this time.” Symonds's place has
gone to another all rounder Shane Watson, but the difference
is that the former can bowl off breaks along with medium pace.
Meanwhile, there are as many as four
uncapped players selected in the squad which includes
27-year-old left arm pacer Doug Bollinger (of New South
Wales), 25-year-old offie Jason Krejza (of Tasmania),
36-year-old leggie Bryce McGain (of Victoria) and 23-year-old
fast bowler Peter Sidle (of Victoria). Infact the Selectors
had done a wise thing in having all these players prior
experience of the Indian conditions by having them in the
Australia A squad which is currently engaged against India A
in a Test and Tri-Series. The Captain of the Australia A side
- Simon Katich has got his wish of coming back in the
Australian Team fulfilled.
The Aussies will fly to India on September
21st with the knowledge that only four out of the 15 men have
actually played Test Cricket in India before! Ironically, it
is going to be the first time that Brett Lee is going to play
a Test Match in India! But it will not be too difficult to
adjust to the conditions as it is the winter season that is
approaching in India and the only real challenge for the
Aussies will be in combating the Indian spinners.
Australia Squad :
Matthew Hayden,
Phil Jaques,
Ricky Ponting (Captain),
Michael Hussey,
Michael Clarke
(Vice-Captain), Simon Katich,
Shane Watson,
Brad Haddin (Wicket Keeper),
Brett Lee, Jason Krejza,
Mitchell Johnson, Peter
Siddle, Bryce McGain, Stuart Clark,
Doug Bollinger
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