Mumbai, December 24
Barely ten days after being dropped from the side Sourav Ganguly has been included in the Indian cricket team touring Pakistan from next month, it was announced here today.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) here.
Others included in the team are Zaheer Khan and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. However, Mohammad Kaif has been dropped.
India and Pakistan will play three Tests and five one-day internationals. BCCI chief Sharad Pawar vigorously defended the inclusion of Ganguly.
“He’s definitely the proper person for the team. Whatever has been coming out in the papers about his relationships with his colleagues are completely wrong. These kinds of reports are unfair on a player like Ganguly who has brought laurels to the country,” Pawar said.
Pawar had earlier met Ganguly and said he would not influence selectors to include the Kolkata batsman but it appears that the Maratha strongman did have his influence over the selectors.
Ganguly’s selection was immediately hailed by his supporters in Kolkata and elsewhere.
The selectors, who had dropped the veteran batsman only last week for the Ahmedabad Test against Sri Lanka, did a volte-face and included him in the 16-member squad for his “experience.
The National Selection Committee, which deliberated here
for close to two hours, also recalled left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel while leaving out Mohammad Kaif and Murali Kartik for the three Test matches that precede five one-dayers.Ganguly’s recall to the squad as “a middle-order batsman” was at the expense of Kaif.
National Selection Committee Chairman Kiran More explained the change of heart of the selectors as a case of giving importance to experience on the tough tour.
“There was a long discussion on middle order batting and we thought that this is the best team we can pick for Pakistan,” said More.
“Mohd Kaif has done well. But he has not played enough Test matches. He played (at Ahmedabad) after one and a half years. We got Sourav back here as we felt we needed some experience on the tour which is going to be tough,” More said.
However, the former Indian stumper made it clear that a berth in the squad did not guarantee a place in the playing eleven.
“But Ganguly’s inclusion or for that matter any other player’s does not guarantee an automatic place in the final eleven. That will be decided in Pakistan as a selector will also accompany the squad (as BCCI’s new policy),” More said.
“The eleven will be decided by the tour management (captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell, tour manager Raj Singh Dungarpur and the selector to accompany the team).” More said Ganguly had a lot of runs and experience behind him while still standing by his earlier statement that the Kolkata batsman had not been not performing well of late.
“We played better on the last visit to Pakistan. This time Pakistan are better prepared. Looking at that angle, we feel this is the best combination we have picked. Sourav has a lot of runs behind him and a lot of experience too, especially for the Pak tour,” More said.
The decision to include Ganguly provides another opportunity for the country’s most successful captain to prove his worth in Pakistan where he had led India to a historic Test and one-day triumphs only last year.
More also made it clear that Ganguly had been selected only as a middle-order batsman and not as a batting all rounder, the tag given to the former captain when he was recalled to the team for the Chennai Test after missing the one-day series.
“We have some plans. We can’t open out everything about which players are to be tried out in the current series and in the next series. We can’t allow the opposition to know these plans,” he added to justify the about-turn on Ganguly.
Grilled further about his previous statement that Ganguly had been chosen in the Test team as a batting all rounder, More said he still can be seen as someone who can bowl a bit with the new ball.
“He still bowls. He’s good enough to bowl as number three bowler (first change). Anybody can bowl. Sehwag can bowl. They should be good enough to bowl well,” the Selection Committee chief said.
On preferring Patel over Karthik, More said, “I think we have a back up for every position. Dinesh has done very well in Test cricket but he’s not having a great season. He’s not in the best of form while Parthiv has done very well in Challenger Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Ranji Trophy too,” the former India wicket keeper said.
Team: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, V.V.S. Laxman, R.P. Singh, Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan and Parthiv Patel.
— PTI
