The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Door open for younger players

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Door open for younger players

Mumbai: Injuries to key middle order batsmen Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Yuvraj Singh ahead of the tough Test series against South Africa has opened the door for younger aspirants to claim places in the Indian squad for the home series to be picked here on Thursday.

The front runners for taking up the slots are S. Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey.

Right-handed Badrinath, the Tamil Nadu and South Zone captain, has vast experience in first class cricket and has scored over 5,000 runs in domestic cricket and is the steadiest of the quartet.

Raina, Sharma and Kohli have shown what they are capable of in the limited-over games and have recently displayed maturity to play the longer version of the game in domestic cricket.

Pandey has suddenly jumped into the fray after his splendid display for Karnataka in this year’s Ranji Trophy, especially in the thrilling final at Mysore against eventual champions Mumbai with a fighting second innings hundred that took the home team on the doorsteps of victory.

And then there’s the option for the selectors to fall back on Mohammed Kaif of Uttar Pradesh if they want an experienced man to prop up the middle order.

Kaif had an ordinary run in the Ranji Trophy for U.P. who made the semis before losing to Karnataka.

But the one-day discard’s double century in the Duleep Trophy quarter final against East Zone in Mohali followed by the gritty 112 on the opening day of the semifinal against South Zone at Indore on Tuesday has suddenly pitch-forked him into the reckoning.

There is also the option of including regular India ’A’ players Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, both of who have scored consistently in domestic cricket and would be in consideration.

Cricket Board’s secretary N Srinivasan had said in a media release that the selectors would choose the team for both the Tests.

But in the light of the injuries sustained by Dravid and Yuvraj subsequently it’s to be seen whether the selectors would pick the squad only for the opening match against SA.

The second Test against the Proteas is to be held at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens from February 14.

The five-man selection panel headed by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, would also pick the Board President’s squad for the two-day warm-up tie against SA at Nagpur scheduled on February 2 and 3. — PTI

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