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Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan in Indian team

Special Correspondent

— FILE Photo

Pragyan Ojha.

Mumbai: Pragyan Ojha must be pleased to hear the news of his selection to the Indian team for the tri-series in Bangladesh and Asia Cup. Murali Kartik was declared unfit on Thursday and Ojha, 21, has been given the big break.

By picking a left-arm spinner for the back-to-back one-day series, the selectors have also sent a clear signal that the time has come to look for an alternative to Kartik, the No. 1 left-arm spinner in India.

Kartik has been in and out of the team because of injury and the selectors feel Ojha could be groomed for international cricket.

— FILE Photo

Yusuf Pathan.

Ojha has played 30 first class matches and taken 121 wickets and 39 wickets in limited over matches at a little under 30. He took 11 wickets at 25.81 in 13 matches for the Deccan Chargers in the DLF-IPL.

Specialist spinner

Ojha is the second specialist spinner, the other being wrist spinner Piyush Chawla. The selectors were in the hunt for a second spinner once the BCCI banned Harbhajan Singh for five ODIs. The options were few.

Though Gujarat’s Mohnish Parmar was among wickets in the 2007-08 season, there’s suspicion on the legality of his action when he bowls the doosra and faster deliveries.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni would have the option of using finger spinner Yusuf Pathan, who has been picked in the Indian team for a one-day series for the first time.

The Baroda batsman and off-spinner was in the Indian team that won the ICC T20 in South Africa last year.

The selectors who met here on Friday have left out Munaf Patel and Dinesh Karthik and Manoj Tiwary, all members of the squad in Australia for the Commonwealth Bank tri-series. Sachin Tendulkar was ruled out because of injury. The selectors and Dhoni’s views on Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly for one-day internationals has been made more or less emphatic now.

Dilip Vengsarkar and his committee will pick the India ‘A’ team for the Emerging Players tournament to be played in Australia on Saturday.

“We will select a strong ‘A’ team for Australia. We want to give exposure and keep them ready as replacements should the players in the Indian team get injured,” said a selector.

The team (for Bangladesh and Asia Cup): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, S. Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla and Pragyan Ojha.

Coach: Gary Kirsten.

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