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England in India 2012-13
India drop Sehwag, call up Pujara
Amol Karhadkar
January 6, 2013
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India have dropped Virender Sehwag for the first three matches of the five-ODI series against England, which begins on January 11 in Rajkot. The decision came after Sehwag was left out of the XI that beat Pakistan in an ODI in Delhi earlier in the day. India gave a maiden limited-overs call-up to Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored 203 off 221 balls in a Ranji Trophy match last week.
A BCCI source told ESPNcricinfo that this could well be the end of Sehwag's limited-overs career. Sehwag has been dropped, said the source, because "he doesn't figure in the plans for the 2015 World Cup". Pujara has been brought in "to anchor the innings, especially in the wake of new rules", which now allow a maximum of two bouncers per over and require a minimum of five fielders inside the circle at all times, which encourages more attacking bowling. The selectors have left it to the team management to decide Pujara's batting position.
Pujara's inclusion was the only change to the squad that lost 1-2 to Pakistan, which meant MS Dhoni, India's best batsman in the series, kept his captaincy despite calls from former selectors for fresh leadership. The sources said Dhoni's captaincy didn't go through much of a debate.
Rohit Sharma was retained despite poor returns in ODIs of late. His last six scores were 5, 0, 0, 4, 4 and 4. Since the end of the series against West Indies in 2011, when he was the Man of the Series, Rohit has averaged 13 over 14 matches with one half-century. Rohit escaped the axe primarily because of "lack of alternatives". He might not have made it had Manoj Tiwary been fit.
Since his double-century against West Indies in December 2011, Sehwag has averaged 23 over 11 matches, including a top score of 96. Sehwag is possibly seen as the weaker fielder, which becomes significant keeping in mind the World Cup in Australia.
Sehwag's replacement, Pujara, is quick in the field and has been scoring runs. After his double-century that stunned Madhya Pradesh six days ago, Pujara said he knew his time was not far away. "That [ODI selection] is something that is not in my control," Pujara had told ESPNcricinfo. "I have always performed in domestic one-dayers. I don't need to worry about it. My time will come. One way or the other I will get my chance to play in the ODI team. I just need to keep performing."
The bowlers were all retained after they successfully defended 167 against Pakistan on Sunday, India's fourth-lowest score batting first in an ODI win.
Squad: MS Dhoni (capt), Cheteshwar Pujara, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami Ahmed, Amit Mishra.
Amol Karhadkar is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
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© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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As we all know, it is almost impossible to replace Viru. However, I think that the BCCI is looking towards the future as to who can step up and fill that void? Personally, I don't think that there is anyone mainly due to the fact that when the opposition is facing him at the top they are always on their heels! With that being said, they essentially have forced out Tendulkar so, who is Sehwag? As a supporter of the Indian team I hope that there are some Dravids, Laxmans, and now Sehwags on the horizon!
I am a terrific fan of Sehwag. But, I think it is a good to drop him so that he gets some real training out somewhere and get back with a big bang and continue to the world cup. If he is in form, no one including the selectors can exclude him from the world cup squad ! Hope he does take some rest, relax and prepare well. He may get more focus also to get back his "cricket with balls" in test format and looking forward to his third 300 !
I believe Rohit Sharma, Ashwin, Raina all the three should have been omitted from the squad along with Sehwag. Maybe even Gambhir, as he has not been in the consistent form we are used to see from him. But, Gambhir has scored runs in the last few series, much more than the aforementioned. Dhoni should come back to No 3, or perhaps No 4, now that Pujara is in the squad to occupy the No 3 slot. And we need fresh blood in the bowling department please. Fresh young legs. Ashwin, Ojha, Mishra are decent tweakers, so not much to differentiate. Sincere request to the BCCI, to develop and map out the Next Playing XI and develop players beyond the present bunch of Stars XI. Amongst all of this we have forgotten how and why we fared so badly in the tests as well as ODIs. In the past one year, one man has done the bulk of scoring and thats Virat Kohli. And he has misfired and failed, and hence India's top order woes and other non performing stars have been exposed so much so to affect changes
Finally a selection I can agree with. Sehwag should never have been in the ODI squad for India after the last world cup, could you imagine his fielding in 2015? I agree with giving Rohit another chance, he is to good of a player not to give him another chance particularly when he was unlucky not to play in the Australian test series which when he was at his peak. Hope BCCI are looking after the future pace attack of India with injured Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron though I doubt they are based on recent comments made by T.A Shekar. Also I hope Ishant starts bowling 145+ consistently again like he did in the Australian test series. He better not go the way of boring line and length Munaf Patel - what a waste of talent that was.
Our Selectors should follow the Australian model and build a list of 7-8 pacers, 3-4 spinners and 15 batsmen by rotating them against visiting teams. We already have 4 pacers from this ODI series, we need to try a few more that played in India A vs England - Ishwar Pandey, Mohit Sharma, Sreesanth and another one - Imtiaz Ahmed of UP. Similarly give a chance to spinners who played for India A - Jalaj Saxena, Parvez Rassol and Nadeem of Jharkhand. Fixing bowling is the easy part, fixing batting won't be easy - we have tons of flat track bullies. Just look at how Sehwag, Gambhir and Kohli play when the ball starts moving.
KiwiRocker-Well one correction, Umesh Yadav did not play in Asia Cup. You are free to express your views and i respect that but about being desperate for getting a bowler like Shohaib or Juniad ,well i disagree.We are not desperate as we know our limitations,our strength is batting not bowling.Pakistan side has always been more talented than us,but in last 10 years even they could not achieve overseas performances like drawing series in Aus and SA and winning series in Eng and WI ,India managed to do that because they had match winners like Rahul and VVS who took all the pressure and performed consistently.Main problem with Indian cricket is that in desperation to keep our home record intact we have been preparing flat tracks for so long instead of playing on sporting tracks and hence we are getting more record maker kind of players like Sachin and Sehwag and less utility players like VVS and Rahul. Thats the main reason for 8-0 thrashing and loss against Eng at home.
Posted by sammysam on (January 9, 2013, 6:13 GMT)Pick players on form and India will rise to the top
Posted by KiwiRocker- on (January 9, 2013, 4:28 GMT)CandidIndian : This is the problem with Indian fans. India is so desperate for a bowler like Junaid Khan that they over hype their players. Few months ago, Umesh Yadev was india's next Shoib Akhtar until the man was hammered by everyone in Asia cup. Now it is Bhuvnesh Kumar! Look, Kumar took some wickets which is good but he was also taken to cleaners in second T20 and second ODI because they were flat pitches. Bowlers like kumar exist on every street of Pakistan who can swing the bowl. Actually, it is a shame that Anwar Ali did not play as that man can swing miles ( see U19 world cup final on you tube). Anyway, Kumar is good but all this hype is unnecessary and speaks of sheer desperation. I mean Virat Kohli was touted as tormentor of Pakistani bowling and poor man ended up scoring 13 runs in the series against Pak which is exactly half of what Umer Gul scored in one less match! Kumar has a long way to go and many Kumars have disappeared before that. All this hype is premature!
Posted by Al_Bundy1 on (January 9, 2013, 4:21 GMT)Sehwag, Gambhir and Kohli are the biggest problems. Why are Indian Selectors incapable of taking drastic measures?? How many series do we have to lose before we get rid of non-performers like Gambhir and Sehwag?? There's no shortage of good opening batsmen in India - Dhawan, Mukund, and Murli proved against England that they are better than Sehwag and Gambhir. Wasim Jaffer is proving himself in Ranji Trophy. There should be no room for Sehwag and Gambhir in Tests or ODI. Jaffer and Rahane can open in Tests, while Dhawan and Mukund/Murli can open in ODIs.
Posted by nyc_missile on (January 8, 2013, 22:53 GMT)If axing the players will fix it,I think all the dead-wood Gambhir,Raina,Yuvraj must also GO.Loser,Dhoni must be stripped off captaincy and should just stay a player that too if he does not go for heroics/not outs and plays for the team and NOT his avg.Biggest problem is the board with its myopic $$ making mindset and complete contempt for test cricket apart from lack of planning and so many other generic ills.But for immediate results,DUMP Dhoni as skipper from ALL formats;he's mentally demoralized and scarred due to unprecedented thrashings and his defeatist mentality is rubbing off on this young team..It is also permeating the whole team.Gambhir as test captain,Kohli as ODI & T20 leader is the best way forward.Enough of Dhoni's favorites Jadeja,Raina Ashwin who only perform once in 10 matches and that simply isn't good enough with the talent available around.