Related Links : India in Sri Lanka 2008/09
Saurashtra’s all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has forced his way into the Indian One Day team following his strong performances in the recently concluded Ranji season. Jadeja takes the place of off spinner Harbhajan Singh who has been rested because of a hamstring injury. Jadeja is also a former India U-19 player, he is the only new face in the 15-man squad picked for the 5-ODIs and Only T20I to be played in Sri Lanka from the 28th of this month. Jadeja also did well in the IPL when he turned out for the victorious Rajasthan Royals. Young Virat Kohli has been axed although he did pretty well in the last tour of Sri Lanka.
The Indian squad has three left arm spinners in Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and also Yuvraj Singh. For Jadeja it has been a deserving selection as he has proved his mettle with his batting – both attacking and also good in staying at the wicket along with his left arm spin. Jadeja though has quite a long way to go to become a high quality spinner at the international level but he might just be fine for the limited overs version where it is all about bowling some tight overs. Jadeja’s teammate Cheteshwara Pujara has been very unlucky not to have made it to the squad despite his incredible knocks. It is very difficult to get a spot in an already established batting line-up with even Sachin Tendulkar returning to the fold. Pujara could be a certainty for the Test Series against New Zealand though. The Selectors have named Virender Sehwag as the deputy to MS Dhoni.
India Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & Wicket Keeper), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja.