Gambhir to captain, Badrinath in for limited-overs leg in WI

[Sid]

Gautam Gambhir will lead a depleted Indian side to the limited-overs leg of the West Indies tour, with five first-choice players including Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni either rested or injured. As expected, the national selectors haven't given much weightage to performances in the IPL, instead rewarding results in the more traditional domestic competitions. S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel muscled their way in helped by the weight of runs in both formats of the Ranji Trophy. R Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra made their way back, replacing Ashish Nehra (injured), Sreesanth and Piyush Chawla (both dropped). Praveen Kumar duly took his place back, having recovered from the injury that had kept him out of the World Cup. He replaces Zaheer Khan, who has been rested. With five vacancies created - Virender Sehwag being the other - there had been some hype created around the IPL performers in the week leading to the selection meeting. The selectors seem to have learned from the debuts handed to Manpreet Gony and Ashok Dinda based on the first IPL, and also from RP Singh's comeback based on the second IPL. As it turned out, the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Rahul Sharma missed out this time. Badrinath and Rohit were the two top run-getters in the Ranji Trophy first-class competition while Parthiv was the second-highest in the Ranji one-dayers. The exclusion of M Vijay - who has a highest of 33 in 11 ODI innings - makes Parthiv the likeliest candidate to open the innings with the captain, Gambhir. This is not Gambhir's first shot at leading India - he was the captain when India beat New Zealand 5-0 in ODIs last year. The selectors are believed to be impressed with his leadership skills, and are likely to make him full-time vice-captain ahead of the slightly reluctant Sehwag, although they haven't yet made any formal announcement to that effect. There was a minor surprise thrown up in the bowling department with Mishra getting in ahead of Pragyan Ojha as the third spinner. In his 16 ODIs - all but three of them against Sri Lanka, who are good players of spin - Ojha has given away runs at only 4.31 an over. However, he was injured before the World Cup and missed the first-class season as well. In the domestic one-dayers, Mishra, with 18 wickets from six games, outperformed Ojha, who managed five in five. Vinay and Ishant, who have been there or thereabouts, are the only ones to have benefitted from good showings in the IPL. It can be argued, though, that they are not unknown commodities and their performances in the IPL have been more of reassurance than first notice. India also picked wicketkeeping cover for Parthiv, making Wriddhiman Saha the 16th member of the squad. India play one Twenty20 and five ODIs against the hosts beginning with the Twenty20 game on June 4. Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha (wk). http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-india-2011/content/story/514946.html

[urbestfriend]

A decent squad. Rayudu is unlucky to missout , one spinner too many considering we have Yuvi and Pathan. Should have taken a batsman extra instead of a spinner.

[saneindian]

Saha and Mishra are strange choices for the shorter format.

[Sid]

I would have preferred Rahul over Mishra.

[rkt.india]

two wicket keppers fro only 5 ODIs is too many...Rayadu should have been there or Manoj Tiwary

[Sid]

Our likely 11 will be : Gauti Parthiv Kohli Yuvi Badri/Rohit Raina Pathan/Ashwin Bhajji PK Ishant Munna

[BERGKAMP]

strange squad, saha and pp dont deserve to be there.

[Sid]

Actually I am glad they have picked WKs for the WK slots not someonle like Rayudu for a backup WK.

[BERGKAMP]

should have gone with kkd, at least he has a bit of power.

[rkt.india]

Actually I am glad they have picked WKs for the WK slots not someonle like Rayudu for a backup WK.

but 2 wks for only 5 DOIs one too many

[Sid]

^May be but generally 2 WKs are picked for away tours,cant fault the selectors there.

[King Tendulkar]

Should have picked one young pacer who has pace, just for grooming and development. Aaron or yadav should have picked one of them at least. Vinay Kumar is simply not good enough for international cricket and is rubbish selection

[Sachin=GOD]

Good strong squad but I would've preferred Rayadu instead of Saha and Aaron/Yadav instead of Vinay Kumar.

[saneindian]

should have gone with kkd' date=' at least he has a bit of power.[/quote'] Has been in atrocious form with the bat in the domestic season. Hasn't lit the IPL bright either.

[vvvslaxman]

Too bad Rahul sharma missed out. But you can't find fault with Amit also who bowled very well. NO real opener apart from Gauti. Someone like Parthiv might open.

[gult]

Pragyan Ojha is very unlucky to miss last WC. And he isn't finding a place in 2nd string side too!

[saneindian]

Has Ojha been forgotten completely now? Was a permanent member of the team in ODI series till the NZ series, but doesn;t find a spot now. Similarly Saurabh Tiwary was with the team for the Lankan tri series in July 2010, for the Australia and NZ ODIs, played 2-3 matches, hardly got to bat, missed out on the WC squad and has now been ommitted from the team.

[BERGKAMP]

from that my starting eleven would be - gambhir nohit badri kohli yuvi raina pp dartbhajan pk ishant munaf

[Sachinism]

How the fark does Saha keep making it to the squad :wall:

[CoverDrive]

Good strong squad but I would've preferred Rayadu instead of Saha and Aaron/Yadav instead of Vinay Kumar.

This Otherwise a good squad. wonder if Yuvraj is going to fret about not becoming the captain. Also I am worried about Gambhir's workload given he is going to be the mainstay in Tests as well.