da bet7： The Indian national selectors are unlikely to be heavily swayed by Twenty20 performances when they choose the squad for the forthcoming tri-series inBangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan
da imperador bet： Siddhartha Vaidyanathan29-May-2008
Yusuf Pathan’s consistency in all forms of the game should boost his selection © Cricinfo Ltd
The Indian Premier League might have provided a launching pad for anumber of previously unheralded players but the Indian nationalselectors are unlikely to be heavily swayed by Twenty20 performanceswhen they choose the squad for the forthcoming tri-series inBangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan.Barring injuries, the players who helped India lift the CB Seriescrown in Australia are likely to be preferred. Sachin Tendulkar, however, has been ruled out of both tournaments due to a groin injury. However, a fewyoungsters could be thrown into the mix if one of the main players isrested for the tournament, one that starts on June 8.”Most of the players who were part of the CB Series squad have beendoing well in IPL also,” one of the selectors told Cricinfo. “That waslargely a young side so we need to give importance to continuity. Ifthere are injuries we will look at a few players in form.”The most obvious vacancy is in the spin department. Harbhajan Singh’sban has opened up a slot and there could be a temptation to pick threespinners, given that it’s summer in Bangladesh. Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, will beexpected to retain his spot but Yusuf Pathan’s recent heroics make hima strong candidate.Apart from his offbreaks he can also swing a match around withthe bat. The fact that he’s done well in all formats this season -four-day, one-day and Twenty20 matches – is a big plus in his favour.Amit Mishra, the legspinner, who had a fine domestic season, has also staked a claimthrough his good IPL performances.The batting line-up picks itself. Virender Sehwag didn’t play in thefinal part of the CB Series but would be expected to retain his spotin the squad. Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir have both set the IPLalight and would be expected to shoulder a bulk of the burden. Allindications suggest that it’s unlikely that the selectors will lookbeyond the line-up that did the job in Australia – unless injuriesforce one or two of the players to miss out.A number of youngsters have made an impact in the IPL but theselectors might be tempted to wait just a bit longer before bloodingthem. An India A team is scheduled to visit Israel and Australia (foran Emerging Nations three-nation tournament) in July and some of theyoung guns may be given a chance there.Rarely have India had such a wealth of fast-bowling options to choosefrom. Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh (though he missed the CB Series due to injury) and Ishant Sharma did a sterling job in Australia and all have been among thewickets of late. Even if one of them were to be unavailable becauseof injury, there’s VRV Singh, Pankaj Singh, Vijaykumar Yomahesh and aslew of others who have the ability to fill the breach.However, Zaheer Khan might not be in the mix – he’s managed 13 wicketsin 11 IPL games but the recurrence of his ankle injury, which ruledhim out of the recent Test series against South Africa, could see himmissing out on the action.
