Related Link : India’s Tour of Australia 2007/08
Indian Selectors surprised everyone with their selection of the Indian One Day Side for the upcoming Tri Series which also involves Australia and Sri Lanka. Experienced campaigners Sourav Ganguly doesn’t find a place in the team anymore while Rahul Dravid wasn’t even considered in a 16-man squad. The selection favoured plenty of young blood and especially the performers in the just concluded Ranji Trophy Championship.
Uttar Pradesh, the runners up have as many as three of their stars making the Indian team to join the already successful RP Singh. The three players are exciting strokeplayer Suresh Raina, leggie Piyush Chawla and the hard working Praveen Kumar, who had taken eight wickets in the first innings of the Ranji Finals. Raina has always been thought of as the next best thing for Indian Cricket, while he did show promise with a few good knocks, the youngster had struggled to find any runs outside India. But Raina needs to be groomed by the Selectors as quickly as possible and his brilliant fielding will help the Men in Blue to create lot of electrifying moments on the field. While Piyush might bring back memories of a successful L Sivaramakrishnan on Australian tracks a few years back. Piyush edged out Murali Kartik who didn’t do any wrong in the Pakistan series! The third UP player, Praveen Kumar with his swing does remind of a L Balaji, whose swinging deliveries made the Aussies hop in the 2003 Tri Series!
The omission of Sourav Ganguly does come in as a surprise but there has been fierce competition from the youngsters who are backed by a young and dynamic captain in Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The squad overall has resemblance to India’s T20 World Cup winning one with just Sachin Tendulkar being the only player in the age group of 30+ to be included in the squad. The Selectors have also picked up a just fit Sreesanth, who has recovered from a shoulder injury following ayurvedic treatment. Ishant Sharma has forced his way into the side due to his superb show in the Test Series. Zaheer Khan was not considered because of his heel injury.
Another important inclusions are that of Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik. This same squad will be there in place for the Only T20 match as well. The Selectors have also named three reserve players in Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Munaf Patel in case they are any injuries. The Indian team had an injury scare when Yuvraj had twisted his knee during a warm-up session. Fortunately, India’s best batsman in the limited formats has recovered in no time from what could have been a nasty injury.
India Squad for CB Series : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik and Ishant Sharma