The Hindu : Sport : Tendulkar to skip Challenger opener

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Wednesday, Sep 27, 2006
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Tendulkar to skip Challenger opener

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar will miss the first match of the Challenger series for the N.K.P. Salve Trophy between India Blues and Reds, National Selection Committee Chairman Kiran More announced here on Tuesday.

"He will play against India Greens and in the final should India Blues qualify," he added. The four-day event will be played from Oct. 1 to 4 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

The NSC — chaired for the last time by More — met here on Tuesday and selected seamers Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji and spinner Murali Kartik for the tournament.

"After recovering from injuries they have played sufficient number of matches and proved their fitness," he said.

On Wasim Jaffer's selection, he said: "He is our Test opener, but I don't want to categorise him as a Test player. He is almost a certainty for the South African tour and needs to play more matches."

"But Anil Kumble is being given more time to rest and recover. India would need a fully-fit Kumble for the series after the Champions Trophy," he said.

Karnataka all-rounder C. Raghu has impressed the selectors after his century against Western Australia at Bangalore and is in the India Reds team.

Bengal off-spinner Sourashish, Saurashtra left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and Uttar Pradesh's Praveen Kumar are the other talented players who will have a chance to showcase their skills at the tournament.

The teams:

India Blues: Rahul Dravid (capt.), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Wasim Jaffer, M.S. Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravindra Jadeja. Coach: Ian Frazer.

India Reds: Venugopala Rao (capt.), Gautham Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S. Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, T.P. Singh, V.R.V. Singh, S. Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Kartik, C. Raghu. Coach: Lalchand Rajput.

India Greens: Md. Kaif (capt.), Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman, Hemang Badani, Suresh Raina, Tanmay Srivastava, Piyush Chawla, Parthiv Patel, Sourashish Lahiri, Ashish Nehra, L. Balaji, Praveen Kumar, R.S. Sodhi. Coach: Robin Singh.

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