Maintaining that it’s not the end of the road for seniors like Zaheer Khan, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel on Thursday said the Indian Test squad for the upcoming series against West Indies was selected keeping in mind the busy international schedule next year.
“Our Indian team is doing really good. Wednesday’s match is a real new landmark and considering the long future tours of India for the year 2014 and keeping in mind the 2015 World Cup, the performance of youngsters is so great though senior players were discussed during the meeting of the selection committee. Still, one vote was in favour of the junior team (young players) to be capped, as it is,” Patel said.
“As this selection has been done only for two Tests, more discussion will be (done, while) considering (the team) for ODIs. But at the moment, we are very comfortable, team management is very comfortable with the selection and we are hoping for the best,” he added.
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Senior pacer Zaheer was overlooked along with a host of other seniors such as batsmen Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Zaheer had made a case for his selection by picking up five wickets in Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy opener.
The 35-year-old has been out of the Test team since December last year owing to fitness and form issues.
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Patel said that the senior bowler’s name was brought up for discussion.
“Zaheer Khan and everybody were discussed. We will consider at the next meeting,” he said.
Harbhajan too was ignored despite finishing with an impressive match figures of nine wickets in Punjab’s win over Odisha, and Patel said the off-spinner’s name was also discussed.
“Harbhajan’s name was also discussed and the details of the discussion, let us keep it under wraps. There was a definite discussion on Harbhajan too,” he said.