Sachin, Laxman, Kumble back in squad
Faisal Shariff
The national selectors on Friday announced a one-day squad for the upcoming tour of South Africa that held few if any surprises.
Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath all return from injury, to help make up a full-strength squad.
Recent failures have seen the door being shown to Samir Dighe, Hemang Badani, Amay Khurasiya, Ajit Agarkar and Rahul Sanghvi.
The interesting additions are Deep Das Gupta, who will debut as wicket-keeper, and the induction of Shiv Sunder Das into the one-day squad, as yet another specialist opener. The squad already has three possible openers in Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag.
Keeping in mind the pacy wickets of South Africa, India has gone in with a full compliment of seam bowlers in Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Nehra and Venkatesh Prasad, with Ganguly's part time seam and Retinder Singh Sodhi as backup. Spin is in the hands of Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, with the likes of Tendulkar, Virendra Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh for backup.
Explaining the selections, chairman of the selection committee Chandu Borde said that Deep Das Gupta is the better batsman when compared to Dighe, and the selectors believed the time was right to groom a new wicket-keeper. "It is always better to blood someone in the one-dayers, ahead of the Tests," Borde felt, and added that for the Test series to follow, outgoing keeper Dighe could still be considered for his experience.
Ajit Agarkar was considered, Borde said, but the selectors needed only four seamers and they reckon they have the best four in Srinath, Prasad, Nehra and Zaheer Khan.
Interestingly, Lele said that Srinath, as India's main strike bowler, was an automatic pick, but added that coach John Wright had had a word with the senior player, and told him that unlike in the past, Srinath cannot pick and chose what he will play and what he will not play. "Srinath has been told that this is not on," Lele said, referring to the fact that of late, Srinath has preferred to sit out of one-dayers claiming that he is concentrating only on Tests.
On the picking of S S Das, Borde said the dimunitive opener is in very good form right now and there was no way he could be omitted. "Going there early will also help him prepare for the Tests and in case of need, Das can also be used in the one-day middle order since he has such good technique against pace," Borde argued.
The surprises were left for the end -- Borde told the media that five standbys had been picked, but refused, point blank, to reveal their names.
Lele then explained why: On the 22nd of September, the team will undergo a fitness test (September 24 has been fixed as the date of departure). Interestingly, it will not be team physio Andrew Leipus, but Bombay-based doctor Anant Joshi, who will conduct the test.
"Joshi has had a word with Leipus, he knows how to take the tests," Lele said, while refusing to address the question of why the simple expedient of having the team physio do the testing was not opted for.
In case any player fails the test, the appropriate standby would then be picked to go in his place, Lele added.
Incidentally, Test opener Sadagoppan Ramesh will also take a fitness test to ensure that his lower back problem, which showed up in course of the recent third Test against Sri Lanka, is completely cured.
The full squad:
Sourav Ganguly (Captain),
Rahul Dravid (vice captain),
Sachin Tendulkar,
VVS Laxman,
Shiv Sunder Das,
Yuvraj Singh,
Virendra Sehwag,
Deep Das Gupta (wicketkeeper),
Anil Kumble,
Harbhajan Singh,
Javagal Srinath,
Zaheer Khan,
Ashish Nehra,
Venkatesh Prasad and
Retinder Singh Sodhi.
