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India rely on youth for BD series, Asia Cup
Mumbai—Yusuf Pathan, a right-hand batsman, and
Pragyan Ojha, a left-arm spinner, have been called up to the
15-member squad for the tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in
Pakistan next month. Dinesh Karthik and Munaf Patel, who played in
the CB Series, failed to make the cut.
The inclusion of Yusuf, who is the half-brother of Irfan Pathan, was
on expected lines after his stand-out performances for the Rajasthan
Royals in the Indian Premier League. He has scored 334 runs at 27.83
from 13 innings with three fifties, and recorded the fastest
half-century of the Twenty20 tournament: off 21 balls against the
Deccan Chargers. He also took five wickets at 41.60 with his offspin.
Ojha was one of exceptions in an otherwise lacklustre performance by
his team, Deccan, who lost 12 off their 14 matches. He took 11
wickets at 25.81, and his best figures were 2 for 18 in their IPL
opener against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
However Venkatapathy Raju, the former India left-arm spinner who is
also one of the national selectors, said IPL performances had not
carried much weightage in picking the squad. “Our team did well in
Australia and we kept in mind injuries to players in our selection”,
Raju told Cricinfo. “Murali Kartik was injured and he opted out so
we were looking for another left-arm spinner and Ojha’s advantage is
his height. He was the selectors’ choice and not a recommendation
from the captain.”
Yusuf, meanwhile, was a unanimous choice, Raju said, based on his
recent performances. Apart from the selectors, Dav Whatmore, the
National Cricket Academy director, Gary Kirtsen, the coach, Niranjan
Shah, the board secretary, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni attended the
meeting.
Ojha first came in to the limelight last August when he picked up 22
wickets in India A’s tour of Kenya, including 9 for 85 in a
three-day fixture that India won by an innings and 87 runs.
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa,
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf
Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP
Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.—Agencies
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