Team for test series: Maiden call-up for Pujara, Yuvraj axed.

[ina_jawaan]

Get him into the starting 11! Now!!

[Sachinism]

Where is Nehra :hitler:

[IKnowU]

India squad MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth and Amit Mishra Rest of India squad Yuvraj Singh (capt.), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, 5 S Badrinath, 6 Saurabh Tiwary, Parthiv Patel (wk), Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ravindra Jadeja

Is it me or did Rohit just get shafted/ignored by the selectors? :hmmm: Or does he have domestic duties for Mumbai?

[SachDan]

Ashwin should been selected in place of Mishra to keep Bhajji on his toes. calling 'asterix' :P

[saneindian]

Rohit and Rahane will play for Mumbai in the Irani Trophy match.

[ina_jawaan]

He'll probably just warm the bench.

you are probably right - but even his presence on the bench sends a meaningful message to those out in the field.

[ina_jawaan]

Team selected for two test series against Aus Yuvi is dropped MS Dhoni (Capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, S Sreesanth, Cheteshwar Pujara, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, VVS Laxman, Pragyan Ojha, Murali Vijay, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra

Still too many weak links and hangers-on in a selection blighted by the usual pestilences of short termism and favouritism. None of the spinners is international class - even on Indian wickets. Pujara and Sreesanth are the only bright spots.

[asterix]

Ashwin should been selected in place of Mishra to keep Bhajji on his toes. calling 'asterix' :P

Ashwin has a long way to go. I would like him to play few ODIs first. Bhajji is a senior bowler as far as our Test bowling is concerned. No point in having anther Off-spinner. I was only cross because when Bhajji was not there, Dhoni didn't try out Ashwin and instead played 3 leftarm spinners, without any logic. All I want is some good, tall spinners in various formats of Indian team. I consider Mishra not that effective because of his height. His bowling trajectory is low and the ball spins very slowly. Most of the time he is very predictable. We need some good spinners to come up for the test team..

[CricketGirl]

ooohhhh i am liking this line up! :D

[cowboysfan]

i have been very critical of cheeka before but this is the best possible squad we can come up right now(atleast for th subcontinent).its unfortunate about mithun but he will get his chance against the kiwis and saffers.

[thevortex]

Ashwin has a long way to go. I would like him to play few ODIs first. Bhajji is a senior bowler as far as our Test bowling is concerned. No point in having anther Off-spinner. I was only cross because when Bhajji was not there, Dhoni didn't try out Ashwin and instead played 3 leftarm spinners, without any logic. All I want is some good, tall spinners in various formats of Indian team. I consider Mishra not that effective because of his height. His bowling trajectory is low and the ball spins very slowly. Most of the time he is very predictable. We need some good spinners to come up for the test team..

Shorter spinners are considered to be better in general. Taller spinners are generally restrictive. It is because they cannot really throw the ball up in the air to get the batsmen beaten in flight :).

[VRV Singh]

I must say I didn't expect Yuvraj to be axed. Fair play to the selectors for making a somewhat bold move, though I am less in the know about Pujara's abilities than most on here. It's positive that we're using this tour to get someone like Pujara in and around the team as a batting talent, even if his playing time is limited... Zak back was always good news. From that pool the main (possibly only?) concern is the spin department

[Sachinism]

Shorter spinners are considered to be better in general. Taller spinners are generally restrictive. It is because they cannot really throw the ball up in the air to get the batsmen beaten in flight :).

But wouldn't the taller spinner be able to naturally extract extra bounce

[saneindian]

Yuvraj in an interview toTImes Now says "I played few good knocks on the Lanka tour and dropping me is unjust. Says he is at his fittest in last 18 months and doesn't need reminders about fitness from anyone. Also adds" I may have to consider something else if I get dropped again". Haven't seent the interview, so dont really know the context, but he sounded really cross with selector's decision.

[thevortex]

But wouldn't the taller spinner be able to naturally extract extra bounce

At the expense of flight, naturally. The extra bounce part of it works and works wonderfully well if you are somebody like Kumble. Kumble is nobody's traditional spinner. But that is precisely why he is an exception rather than the rule. As a batsman it would be easier to face a taller spinner always pushing the ball down rather than a spinner like Prasanna who constantly throws the ball up and brings about variations in trajectory and therefore bounce.

[thevortex]

On the selection I like Pujara's choice. I am surprised at Mishra and Ishant being retained though. Hope Ishant gets back to his best. If he is not there yet, an international fixture is not the place to try and get to top form.

[asterix]

At the expense of flight, naturally. The extra bounce part of it works and works wonderfully well if you are somebody like Kumble. Kumble is nobody's traditional spinner. But that is precisely why he is an exception rather than the rule. As a batsman it would be easier to face a taller spinner always pushing the ball down rather than a spinner like Prasanna who constantly throws the ball up and brings about variations in trajectory and therefore bounce.

Agree. But over the years the pitch conditions have changed in the sub-continent and the pitches have become slower and slower. Bowlers like Mishra (even if they try to flight and spin) wouldn't be able to do much because the ball spin is very slow to beat the batsman even if he is beaten in the flight (remember all of us tearing our hairs when mishra bowls those slow, good for nothing overs). That's why I was wishing to have a tall spinner in the line up.

[saneindian]

More than the turn on the track, what our spinners look for is some bounce on the track like the pitches at Mohali, Mumbai and Kolkata offer. Its the dead placid tracks of Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kanpur, Nagpur and to an extent Bangalore where these spinners have not had their best moments. Bangalore had decent bounce in the recent IPL, hopefully the pitch will retian some of that bounce for the test match. Mohali will be a tricky one, most likely a slow turner as due to the persistent rain, the curator will not get much chance to prepare a good bouncy pitch.

[yoda]

Is Pujara being considered a test specialist? Why is Kohli not there ahead of him having done reasonably well already in ODIs?

[Ram]

R.I.P Yuvraj’s test career (at least for a while, maybe forever).