No Harbhajan, Yuvraj for Australia tour
The Indian selectors stuck to the core of the set of players who did duty for India in the third Test of the West Indies series for the upcoming tour of Australia, with no surprises in the 17-man squad picked. As expected, Harbhajan Singh continued to find himself excluded, while Yuvraj Singh failed to make his way back too. The selectors kept faith with the spinning duo of Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin - both of whom showed excellent form in the West Indies series. However, Rahul Sharma, who was part of the Test squad against West Indies but didn't get a game, also didn't make the cut.
The only additions to the squad selected for the third Test against West Indies were an extra wicket-keeper in Wriddhiman Saha, pacer Praveen Kumar and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan. There was a rider attached to Zaheer's selection though: he would join the team subject to his match fitness. He is expected to play the next two Ranji trophy games for Mumbai.
On the exclusion of Harbhajan Singh in particular, Kris Srikkanth said it couldn't be helped if the team selected itself.
"Unfortunately, we cannot help it as the team selects itself. In Australia, you cannot have more than two spinners. Pragyan Ojha and Ashwin are doing an excellent job. Sometimes it becomes bad luck and sometimes people miss out. I'm sure everyone has their own time and space to come back," chief selector Kris Srikkanth told reporters after the meeting.
Srikkanth said Zaheer will have to prove his match fitness before he gets the clearance to travel to Australia.
"Zaheer will play in a couple of Ranji Trophy matches. And once he is fully match-fit and everything is fine, he will join the side. He may also go with the team as by the time (the team leaves) he would have played a couple of matches by that time," said Srikkanth.
The Test series against Australia will begin with the Boxing Day (December 26) Test in Melbourne, followed by three other matches in Sydney (Jany 3-7), in Perth (Jan 13-17) and in Adelaide (Jan 24-28).
Srikkanth said the selectors have chosen a balanced side and he hoped the team will do well in Australia.
"We have chosen a very balanced side. We have taken everything into account, including fitness and Australian conditions. If you ask me today whether this team can beat Australia in Australia, I would say I'm very confident. We should beat Australia in Australia in a Test series," he said.
"Our batsman are in form, our bowlers are in form. And now we have all kinds of bowlers. We have fast bowlers, medium fast bowlers, we have swing bowlers, spinners -- left arm and off spin.
"So depending on the conditions there the team management will select the team on a match-to match basis. Let's hope that this side beats Australia in Australia, which has been a very cherished dream for every Indian cricketer, and every Indian fan," he said.
Squad: M S Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Zaheer Khan.
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