Not a good decision to ignore Harbhajan - Kaneria

Danish Kaneria, the Pakistani legspinner, has said it was "not a good decision" by Indian selectors to ignore Harbhajan Singh for their team's on-going tour of England as pitches there favour spin in this time of the year.

"During this time of the season, the pitches start to become dry and spin comes into play. So I think it wasn't a good decision of not picking Harbhajan Singh," he was quoted as saying by 'The News'.

Kaneria, who is currently playing for English county Essex, was at Chelmsford to watch the Indian team's practice session on the eve of their final three-day warm up match against England Lions. Kaneria was impressed with the young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and spoke highly him. "I saw that the young man Piyush Chawla bowled really well in Ireland where it was difficult to even hold the ball. And I see no reason why he is not in the Indian Test squad," he said.

On India's chance in England this time around, Kaneria said he hoped the visitors would do well with the help of their strong batting line-up. "Well, Asian teams always struggle a bit in England. But India have a very good batting line-up with Sourav Ganguly, [Rahul] Dravid, and Sachin [Tendulkar]. I think they will cope up well and I hope the Indian team does well in this series over here."