Delhi left-hander Shikhar Dhawan and Uttar Pradesh seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been picked in the India 15 for the first two Tests against Australia to be played at Chennai and Hyderabad.
Dhawan comes into the squad at the expense of fellow opener from Delhi, Gautam Gambhir. Tamil Nadu’s Murali Vijay is the third opener in the team, and it would be interesting to see if the India captain opts for a left-right combination or would prefer Virender Sehwag and Vijay, who after his 139 and 37 against Australia at Bangalore in October 2010, had dismal scores of 13, 9, 8, 0, 11, 3, 5 and 45 in four Test matches in the West Indies.
Gambhir has not scored a Test century since his 116 against Bangladesh at Chittagong in January 2010, and in the recent four-Test series against England he made 45 at Motera, 4 and 65 at Mumbai, 60 and 40 at Kolkata and 37 at Nagpur.
Harbhajan Singh who had two leg-trap victims (Aditya Tare and Ajinkya Rahane) in the second innings of the Irani Cup match against Mumbai here on Sunday has been recalled. He played his 99th Test against England at Mumbai, but did not figure in the subsequent two Tests in Kolkata and Nagpur. He is likely to play his 100th Test at Chennai. The selectors have dropped Gambhir, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and seamer Parvinder Awana from the 15 that was picked for the fourth Test against England at Nagpur.
Gambhir will lead the India ‘A’ team in the three-day game against Australia from Feb. 16 to 18.
The team: M.S. Dhoni (capt.), Virender Sehwag, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashoke Dinda, Murali Vijay and Ishant Sharma.
Keywords: Team India, Australia's tour of India
Australian series going to start, i feel the team which we got is capable of defeating Australia. But still i feel why raina is not there, the man in form, i don't understand what is need of selecting four openers when only two will be in the team. It's good that gambhir has been dropped, i hope he gains his form by playing in domestic games. Even sehwag should have been dropped for these 2 tests and raina should have been given the chance.
Anyhows we are not the selectors, our selectors would have considered all the players and have selected the top 15. All the best Team India.
Regards
Ravi
What's the raionale in asking Gambhir's to lead the first practice game when he is not in test probales for the first two tests. Pujara/Dhawan/Sehwag could have been a better choice for the role.
The selection committee has gone for the five opening batsmen and only
three batsmen specialist in the middle order including sachin, kohli and
dhoni. I think in their opinion middle order is not as important. If the
middle order fails and team loses, people will blame the players, while
it is the blunder of selection committee. I cant understand how the
people sitting there who also include the former cricketers can take
such kind of stupid decisions.
Why inform Raina is not in team.
If you go on playing and given chance,with a master like Sachin
records are bound to broken one after another.But Sachin is well past
his glory and he is encroaching on space that should be some one
else's.Sehwag and Harbhajan are two other cases,both outstanding and I
am fan of Sehwag,too should call it day or told to do so.Sikhar Dhawan
or Jaffer are not part of even near future despite their performance
in national tournaments.Zaheer too should be retired even when he is
fit.It would seem that selectors think that immediate series is all
that matters but it does not.There is indeed timidity.
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