Mumbai: The Indian selectors still have no faith in veteran Delhi lads, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, as they decided to keep them away from the forthcoming Sri Lanka tour where India will play three Tests starting from August 12. He has replaced fellow legspinner Karn Sharma from that squad – Sandeep Patil, the chief selector, confirmed that Karn was not fully fit yet – and the other addition to the 15-man was that of batsman KL Rahul, who returned after missing the Bangladesh tour with illness. But his selection in the India A squad for longer format makes it clear that he is there in the mix.
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India name leg-spinner Amit Mishra in their Test squad for the first time in four years. In the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy season, Mishra played six matches for Haryana and took 10 wickets.
Sunil Gavaskar, who has been vocal about the spinner- situation too, told NDTV after Mishra’s inclusion: “For the past few years, we have struggled to find quality spinners”.
It is great that two spinners at this age have shown enough fitness to be allowed a comeback at this age – and legspinners are known to mature late anyway – but experts are not happy with what this says about India’s spin reserves. The final authority of picking the XI is the role of the captain and the team management.
When asked about why the selectors did not opt for left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha or Axar Patel for that matter, Patil said, “We did discuss Ojha and others”. “We have nominated a stand-by wicketkeeper”. He has always supported me, and I’m sure he will continue supporting me when we go there. The squad will now be leaving for Sri Lanka on August one. “It’s up to us to represent each and every player who plays and performs”, Patil reasoned about Harbhajan, who has bagged 416 wickets in 102 matches. “My co-selectors were on both the tours and have given the feedback”.
Ishant Sharma continues to lead the pace attack that also includes Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron, while the middle order looks solid with the presence of Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. But looking at Sri Lanka’s recent performance against Pakistan, we unanimously went with Mishra as they have been troubled by Yasir Shah.
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The first Test starts on August 12 at Galle followed by two matches in Colombo.
