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Yuvraj Singh got the nod as the Krishnamachari Srikkanth-led selection committee, on Saturday, picked a 16-member squad for the next month's three-Test away series against Sri Lanka. The meeting in Chennai, which started unusually early at 8.45am as the BCCI president Shashank Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan had a flight to catch for the ICC's annual conference in Singapore, saw a surprise inclusion in Wriddhiman Saha as the reserve wicketkeeper. Dinesh Karthik's match-winning knock in the Asia Cup final was ignored.
"Saha played just one Test against South Africa in Nagpur earlier this year. We felt that he deserved one more chance as just one failure didn't make a bad player. His wicketkeeping is impressive," said a selector demanding anonymity.
According to a source, Murali Vijay's inclusion as a back-up opener paved the way for Saha. Karthik could have served the dual role of a second wicketkeeper and reserve opener. But Vijay was taken as a specialist since Virender Sehwag is nursing a hamstring injury though he is expected to be fit before the first Test in Galle that starts on July 18.
Yuvraj's return to the Test squad, after he was dropped for the Asia Cup, was expected. The southpaw, along with Rahul Dravid missed India's last Test assignment against South Africa at home due to injuries. Dravid also walked into the side, at the expense of S Badrinath, to strengthen the middle-order.
But Pujara's omission was enough to raise an eyebrow or two. His double hundred against West Indies A and an unbeaten 122 against Scotland A in the India A team's ongoing tour of England was overlooked. "He (Pujara) mustn't lose heart. He is standing on the threshold and his time will come.
"He missed out because at the moment there's no vacancy in the middle-order. Suresh Raina was in the squad against South Africa and it would have been unfair to drop him, especially after his consistent performance in limited overs cricket. But Pujara is on the stand-by and will be our man in case of a mid-of-the-tour batting replacement," said the selector. "As for Vijay, he has made most of the limited opportunities he got and is the right man as a back-up for Sehwag and (Gautam) Gambhir," he added.
Ishant Sharma and S Sreesanth returned to share the new ball with Zaheer Khan, but the selector didn't pick a fourth seamer. "On slow and low wickets only two seamers are expected to play. So, we have decided to include three pacers along with three spinners," the selector said. He just stopped short of saying that Indian cricket at the moment is facing a pace mess.
Team: MS Dhoni (c), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth.
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