Team Selection for ODIs Vs England announced; Bhajji gets the axe

It looks like Srikkanth and his team have taken a major gamble in choosing the team against England for the ODI. The selectors have picked only 6 batsman (2 raw) apart from choosing an allrounder, an additional wicket keeper and almost all fresh bowlers.

The 6 batsman who have been picked are Gautam Gambhir, A.Rahane, Suresh Raina, Kohli, Manoj Tiwari and MSD. Batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary are the other replacements sent to England who kept their spots. This batting line up would mean that if 1 or 2 batsmen fail, the middle order would collapse. Gautam Gambhir has not been in the best of forms post the  World Cup, and the only batsmen with decent experience under their belts are Raina and Kohli, which would mean that there is a huge pressure straight away on them. Also, poor Raina, he has been playing continuously since 2009 February, without a break.

On the bowling front, Bhajji has been dropped post his recent continued poor form, where he took only two wickets in 69.4 overs at an average of 143.50 and economy-rate of 4.11 in the 1st 3 tests played against England recently.  But on the fast bowling front, except Praveen Kumar, almost all bowlers, in the likes of Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind  and two spinners in R Ashwin and Rahul Sharma - are all freshers at this level. Fast bowler, Varun Aaron who was part of the ODI squad in England but did not play, retained his place in the 15-man team. 

The inclusion of Jadeja as an all-rounder, might have given a slightest stability to this team, but, still, it is definitely a high risk team selection considering that the  batting and bowling combination looks fairly weak. Lot would depend on MSD's shoulder again!

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar. 


My XI based on the above Squad: Gautam Gambhir, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Praveen Kumar, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind.