Margao: India's national selectors on Monday axed Gautam Gambhir but reposed faith in Virender Sehwag as they included him in the squad for the remaining four One-Dayers of the England series as well as two matches against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi later this month.
Karnataka opener Robin Uthappa was drafted in the squad which otherwise remained unchanged.
India lead the seven-match series against England 3-0.
The two matches in Abu Dhabi are to be played on April 18 and 19.
The selectors also named Venugopala Rao as captain of an India 'A' team to play in a six-nation tournament in Abu Dhabi from April 22 to May 5.
Sehwag's swashbuckling ways have fetched the 27-year old star batsman over 4,000 runs and seven centuries in 144 matches.
But the last one of these three-figure knocks came exactly one year against Pakistan at Kochi's Nehru Stadium.
Chairman of selectors Kiran More, however, said there was no questioning the Delhi batsman's credibility.
"He has an outstanding record. He is second only to Sunil Gavaskar in the number of double centuries scored," More said.
The former India stumper said Gambhir had failed to capitalise on the chances given to him.
"Gambhir has not been performing of late, so we thought we will give a chance to Uthappa," he said.
Gambhir, who came into the team in place of the injured Sachin Tendulkar, has just one century and an innings of 71 to his credit in 16 matches till date at a modest average of 25-plus.
The two significant innings he played came in his first six matches after which he has not reached 40.
The 20-year-old Uthappa impressed in the Challenger Series earlier this season.
The right-hander averages 32.40 with 1037 runs from 20 matches in domestic cricket.
More also said that some of the seniors could be rested if India clinched the series against England early.
"It is quite possible we will even give a chance to some of the players picked for the India 'A' team," he said.
India 'A' will be competing against teams from Pakitan, Sri Lanka, UAE, Holland and Ireland in the six-nation event.
The chief selector added that the team for the tour of West Indies in May-July would "most probably picked at the end of the month".
The 15-member India squad to play against England and two fund-raiser matches in Abu Dhabi: Rahul Dravid (C), Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Venugopal Rao, S Sreesanth and RP Singh.
The 14-member India 'A' squad: Venugopal Rao (C), Robin Uthappa, Shikhar Dhawan, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, S Badrinath, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Kaarthick, Rajendra Jadeja, SS Paul, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, RP Singh, VRV Singh and Piyush Chawla.
Comments
0 comment