So India's squad for the home tests against Australia has been picked. Most of it is as expected:
MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra.
Gambhir walks back into the opening role, Zaheer is back as the spearhead, and Mithun is out despite showing promise.
The big inclusion, though, is the one I have cleverly italicized, followed by the italicization of 'italicized' for no reason at all.
Cheteshwar Pujara has finally made the cut, by "sheer weight of performance", as Srikkanth puts it. No shit, Holmes. He's still behind Raina and Vijay in the pecking order, but the big 3 aren't going to be around forever. Or maybe they are, if cricketing Botox becomes available soon. Crictox. Bocket.
Anyway, Yuvraj has now been dropped from the Test squad, where most people will agree that he never really belonged. Sure, he's had a couple of decent knocks. But so does Raina, his replacement, in only his debut series.
The Prince (of nothing) was also recently dropped from the ODI squad, though we know it was only rest. So does he, for that matter. First clue? Selectors calling him "India's trump card at the World Cup". He's just. That. Important.
Harbhajan is also back, inspiring me to bring out a new blog feature called "Terrible Metaphor".
Terrible Metaphor
If Harbhajan was milk, he is now Curd. The Curdinator. Something to do with expiry dates, I don't know.
End of Terrible Metaphor
Ojha is the second spinner, or is it Mishra? Who knows - they certainly don't.
Sreesanth is back again. This is a selection I'm pleased about - he still has his original skill set, and is only found wanting in the accuracy department. I'd open with him and Zaheer, definitely. Ishant Sharma is also around, probably just for Ponting. Venkatesh Prasad says he has a great work rate. Yeah, in your pants, Venky. (Inappropriate joke #1)
Heavy batting, thin bowling. Same as ever.
0 comments:
New comments are not allowed.