Well Balanced Test Squad for SL
Full marks to the selectors for picking the best available touring party, ignoring the new commodity, which I agree, is a safe bet!

As mentioned in my column early this morning, the selectors have not included any new faces to the Test squad, rather, they have kept faith in their players, though they have let the team down very recently – Yes, I am talking about the selectors faith in bringing back Yuvraj, Sreesanth and Ishanth Sharma.

When compared to my list, there were not much to ponder about, except the fact that Badrinath is found missing in this 15 member squad. This will surely demotivate this lad, as he could not cement in touring side for the last 5 years. The lack of confidence shown by the selectors, could mean end of the road for Badri. There are lot of young contenders waiting in the wings – the likes of Pujara, Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Raina – the last 3 mentioned in this list who are already a proven factor in ODIs, are all chirpy cricketers, and unlike Badri, are self motivators.
As mentioned, Yuvraj’s inclusion is no surprise to this touring team  – Captain MS Dhoni, is a big fan of Yuvraj’s talent, and could have insisted that he be recalled. The selectors perhaps thought that the necessary message had been delivered. This wake-up call to Yuvraj, will now do a lot of good to him and is sure to prove all his critics, once again, wrong.

Ishant and Sreesanth, part of India’s last Test squad, have gone through pretty ordinary times in limited-overs cricket since then, both in the IPL and while playing for India. They were duly dropped, but are still the best bets for the Test side. More so because none of the alternatives tried in their absence have impressed enough. And Ashish Nehra is not willing to play Tests, while Praveen Kumar is strictly a limited-overs bowler.
More importantly, this selection could point to a practical outlook from the selectors, that of having identified Ishant and Sreesanth as Test specialists, and having realised the need to protect them from the excessive one-day cricket, which could have played a part in their downfall.

Lack of alternatives could have prompted India to go for three spinners, giving Ojha another chance in a Test squad. The spin squad is safely in the hands of Bhajji, Ojha and Amit Mishra, leaving Dhoni nothing to complaint about.

Wridhman Saha probably, has been taken as an understudy to Dhoni and may be included in the 1st tour game.

The touring team selection clearly indicates that there will be 7 batsman (including Dhoni) and 4 bowlers (2 paceman and 2 spinners) during all 3 matches against SL. Thus when the tour starts with a three-day game at Nondescripts Cricket Club, it should provide a good competition between Ishant and Sreesanth, and Mishra and Ojha.

Squad: MS Dhoni (wk & capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (vice-capt.), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, M Vijay, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Wriddhiman Saha (wk)
For further articles, click onto Stump Vision

A vast test matches and one day series were frozen all over India before hardly any days. The sequence obtained a terrific response from the youths. As usual Indians are fond of cricket and the same was this time too. The string was held at different cities (Nagpur, Kolkata, jaipur, Kanpur, Ahmadabad) opposing South Africa.

The Indian squad(Indian players: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain), Sachin Tendulakar, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Yusuf Pathan, Ravinder Jadeja, Abhisek Nayar, Amit Mishra, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Sudeep Tyagi.) for this time contained a majority of batsman and the bowlers were below the ground. They were as few as the audience in volleyball match in 1998. Although this time, not of usual manner, India didn’t seemed to be in a good shape as it lacked quality bowler besides Harbhajan Singh. Bhajji is a well known off spinner but somewhere lacks to be a fast bowler.

Bhajji’s view – During the startup of ODI’s Bhajji was on a casual leave on account of his sister’s marriage. His absence was indisputably felt by whole team. Our very own former Team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He clearly mentioned in an interview that Bhajji is the team spirit and his absence betrays us. During his absence Sachin secured 200 scores in ODI’s and gave a drastic blow to South African’s. His bucketful performance was so shocking, though after so long but finally he did so.
Bhajji praised Sachin for his remarkable performances and presentations. He also commented that Sachin is far better than Bradman. A remark to Sachin from such a supreme off spinner is not beyond to victory. Harbhajan Singh stated that he was short to words but would certainly like to appreciate Sachin’s outstanding performances. The angry young man, Bhajji also declared that he is very appointed for his absence in the match. He wished he could have seen it live instead of hearing it.
On contrary, during the survey media conveyed that according to masses victory of Sachin was surely not a big deal as, it was expected from his part.If a player like Sachin would not have given such a tremendous presentation than it’s like a shame for the player and its countryman too.

Harbhajan Singh gave his well wishes to Sachin for his better future and growth. To praise a player by a Chief Player is not an easy task as it seems to be. But never then Bhajji, being a true sports man admired Sachin Tendulakar for his fantastic performance