The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Tendulkar in team for first two Tests

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 02, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Tendulkar in team for first two Tests

BANGALORE, OCT. 1. Sachin Tendulkar was named in the Indian squad for the first two Tests against Australia at Bangalore and Chennai.

"The fact that he is there in the squad means that he is considered for selection in the playing eleven.

However, his fitness will be assessed on a day-to-day basis before the first Test here on October 6. He is doing the rehabilitation process for the injury and in case he is not available, we do have other players in the selected 15 to choose from," said S.K. Nair, BCCI Secretary, at a press conference here on Friday.

Ganguly captain

The BCCI secretary addressed the media after the reconstituted selection committee met under the chairmanship of Kiran More. Before selecting Tendulkar and naming the squad, the selectors retained Sourav Ganguly as captain for the Test series against Australia.

"Sourav Ganguly was selected as captain unanimously and no other name was discussed. Ganguly and coach John Wright were then invited to join the deliberations on team selection," said Nair.

On the probable opening combination for the Tests, the BCCI Secretary said, "we have named two specialist openers — Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra — in the squad."

The Board Secretary also said that the names of Dheeraj Jadhav, Venugopala Rao, S. Sriram and Ashish Nehra were discussed during the meeting.

The team: Sourav Ganguly (Capt.), Rahul Dravid (vice-capt.), Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra, V.V.S. Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Kartik.

Our Sports Reporter

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport