The team (for Bangladesh and Asia Cup): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, S. Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha.

Coach: Gary Kirsten.

Sachin Tendulkar was ruled out because of injury. The selectors and Dhoni’s views on Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly for one-day internationals has been made more or less emphatic now.

SOON THE Indian Premier League will be forgotten and all talk will revolve just around the Indian team. The first sign of that happening was the selection meeting of the national selectors at the Board of Control for Cricket in India headquarters at the Wankhede Stadium to pick the fifteen member squad for the tri-series, involving India, hosts Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan.
And when they ended their hourlong meeting, that was also attended by the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten, they had given left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha from Hyderabad and Baroda all-rounder Yousuf Pathan a berth in the Indian team for the first time.
When selectors sat down yesterday morning, they had to look at replacements for two important men, Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh.
While Tendulkar has aggravated his groin injury by playing in the Indian Premier League much against the advice of the former Team India physio John Gloster, Harbhajan has been banned following the ‘slapgate’ incident.
PRESSURE IN IPL
TENDULKAR’S ABSENCE from the two tournaments raises serious doubts on who really decides upon his fitness. It also shows us how much pressure was he under to turn out for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. The manner that Tendulkar had chosen in the past to play or sit out of the tournament is an indication that he, himself, is deciding on his fitness.
He was one of the players who missed the fitness tests taken at the National Cricket Academy at Bangalore prior to the start of the Test series against South Africa. The result was that he was forced out after the first Test and was sitting out of the first seven matches of the IPL. It was only the bad position that Mumbai Indians found themselves in that he rushed himself to the middle.
Tendulkar’s absence also means that for the first time in a long while an Indian team will take to field in a one day international without the presence of the Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid trio.
IPL FORM NOT CONSIDERED
A LOOK at the team also makes it clear that the selectors have not taken any notice of the performances in the IPL and rightly so. As a result, guys like Swapnil Asnodkar and MS Gony will have to perform in the domestic Ranji season for a Team India berth.
Four over or a 20-30 ball cameos says little about the calibre of the player in the 50-over version of the game.
For the 21-year Ojha it’s a reward of consistent performances in the domestic season. He has also benefited from the absence of Murali Kartik due to ankle injury. Ojha made his first class debut in 2004-05 and has taken 121 wickets in 30 first class matches. He has been a consistent performer for the India A team too.