The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sreesanth, Raina, Murali Kartik in one-day squad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 30, 2006

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Sreesanth, Raina, Murali Kartik in one-day squad

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Kerala pace bowler Sreesanth, Uttar Pradesh's all-rounder Suresh Raina and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik have been picked for the five-match one-day international series against Pakistan. Not lucky to be in the squad for the first part of the tour, Mohammad Kaif, was an automatic choice. Zaheer Khan is the lone exception.

The selectors after a discussion with the team management in Pakistan came out with a strong message regarding Sourav Ganguly. The former India captain, nursing ambitions to figure in the first World Cup to be held in the Caribbean Islands, was not discussed in the course of a less-than-an-hour meeting at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Ganguly, who has not played a single domestic limited over tournament or was picked for the 12 matches against Sri Lanka and South Africa, will return home.

Scarce options in the seam bowling department is the chief reason for the retention of Zaheer Khan and the recall of Sreesanth. "L. Balaji has not recovered sufficiently well from an injury. So is the case with V.R.V. Singh. And Ashish Nehra is in Australia for treatment. He is in touch with physio John Gloster and we will know his fitness status after a month or so. Sreesanth is fit and has played Ranji matches for Kerala. We also discussed Bengal's Shib Shankar Paul, Ranadeb Bose and Maharashtra's Munaf Patel, but eventually we were guided by the results obtained during the home series against Sri Lanka and South Africa,'' said Kiran More, chairman of selectors.

Returning home after the third Test at Karachi would be Anil Kumble, V.V.S. Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Jaffer and Parthiv Patel. When told that Ganguly had expressed a desire to play till the 2007 World Cup, Kiran More said: "All cricketers want to play for India. Well, it's not the end of the road for anyone, including Laxman and Kumble. We have certain plans for the World Cup.''

Happy

More said he was happy with the performance of the Indian team against Pakistan. "It's been fantastic. The media and even some former cricketers did not expect India to perform exceptionally well. We will try and find a solution to the `opening pair' problems in the coming series against England. Whatever decision was taken in Pakistan with regard to Dravid opening the innings was taken in the best interests of the team. I would back the captain and the team management's decisions.''

The team: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautham Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, M.S. Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik and Sreesanth.

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