Taking a look at the Indian Squad for the Tests against Australia

The selection committee, headed by Sandeep Patil, announced the 15-member squad of the Indian cricket team for the upcoming Test series against Australia which begins on the 22nd of February in Chennai.

Here is the 15 member squad:

MS Dhoni (capt and wk), Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda.

The Indian Selectors ran out of patience with Gautam Gambhir’s lack of form and dropped him for the first two tests, no debate on that but the question arises now – who will open with Sehwag? It could be a tricky one as the selectors have picked three more specialist opening batsmen other than Sehwag in the form of Vijay, Dhawan and Rahane. These three players have performed extremely well in domestic cricket in the past season and deserve to be in the squad. Then comes the middle order where we have the likes of Pujara, Kohli, Tendulkar, Dhoni. The middle order has underperformed in the past Test series, and also the recent one against England.

Ravindra Jadeja is an surprise inclusion in the Test squad and has probably came in for the out of form Yuvraj. Jadeja has scored runs for Saurashtra in the longer form of the game this season. As far as the batting goes, Sehwag, Pujara, Tendulkar, Kohli and Dhoni are the real certainties in the line-up and there would be a lot of focus on the other spots.

Now coming to the bowling. The selectors have picked 3 specialist spinners in the squad, with Harbhajan Singh grabbing all the headlines for his selection, and why wouldn’t he? Harbhajan is at his best against the Aussies every time he faces them. Ashwin has been out of form lately and has not found rhythm. Ojha looks as if he has been there for a long time but hasn’t done enough to show his credentials. Ashwin’s lack of form and Harbhajan’s past record against Australia may tempt a switch. Ojha should get in as his left-armers can provide variety to the attack, but who knows, India could play with two right arm off spinners.

On to the pace department, 3 pacers have been selected in the form of Ishant Sharma, Ashoke Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. India are now going to field a very young pace-attack, led by Ishant Sharma. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s swing bowling has helped him into the side, while Dinda has also been given the green signal. Thus, India would have a debutant fast bowler in this crucial series to partner Ishant. It was surprising that the selectors did not recall a fit again Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. He looked as if he had found his rhythm in the Irani Cup match. Sreesanth could have merited a call-up in this scenario.

The Indian squad certainly looks better on paper compared to the Australian squad. India will once again rely on their batting line up and their spin attack going in this series. This is a very important series for Tendulkar as he gears up for the Australian challenge. This should be the last time he faces Australia in India and an encore of those memorable battles is what a nation prays for.