England Tour 2011: Indian Squad and Series Preview
To read our preview of the first ODI at Hyderabad on October 14, click here
Breaking News As On September 29, 2011
The Indian team for the England tour of India has been announced for the first two ODIs.
It is as follows:
MS Dhoni, 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.
As you can see this is a highly depleted side and many star players are missing from the squad, such as Sachin Tendulkar, Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh. Others omitted are Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma, all ostensibly due to injuries picked up during the England tour. Incidentally, Ashish Nehra, was not picked in spite of offering to play, having claimed to have recovered his fitness.
Interestingly, Dhoni is said to have requested BCCI not to consider him as he needs “rest”. He seems quite fresh in the Champions League tournament currently underway; so why does he need “rest”? Very, very interesting. By the way, has Harbhajan been “dropped” or “rested”?
Is this like the “rest” some of our stars took when the West Indies tour was on, after the IPL in which they had participated with great enthusiasm? The makings of a controversy here, I think.
Does BCCI consider T20 the future of cricket, ahead of tests and ODIs? It would seem so.
UPDATES on India tour of England
Breaking news as on August 22, 2011: Sehwag, Ishant to return
Sehwag and Ishant Sharma will not take part in the ODI series to follow the test matches. The injured players will be replaced by Rahane and Aaron. Zaheer Khan has already returned earlier, owing to injury. RP Singh has been chosen to replace Zaheer in the original squad of 16 announced earlier for the ODI matches to follow the test series in England:
MS Dhoni (Captain & wicketkeeper), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper), Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar
To read a summary of the third test match at Edgbaston, click here…
India have lost the First Test match by 196 runs. Indian captain Dhoni has cited the absence of Zaheer Khan as the primary reason for their loss to England. The second Test match was also a disaster for India marred by controversies.
The Indian team is hit by injuries and the latest in the list are Zaheer and Gambhir. Along with Sehwag, these two may not feature in the Second Test match. This will be a big blow to the Indians! Either Sreesanth or Munaf Patel is set to replace Zaheer Khan. Our pick would be Munaf Patel who has a better match temperament than Sreesanth.
Please click here to read the Summary of First Test Match.
This summer, England are set to host India in a cricket series comprising of four Tests and five One Day International (ODI) matches. The Indian Cricket team are set to tour England from July 15 t0 September 16, 2011. The tour itinerary will include practice matches with English County teams.
A depleted Indian side are currently contesting a Test series, in the West Indies. India have won the ODI series, 3-2, and are leading the Tests series, 1-0. For a detailed summary of India’s tour to the West Indies, please read Performance Summary: India Tour of West Indies 2011. Big names like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh did not feature on the West Indies tour.
For Indian fans, the good news is that the big guns are back in the Indian squad. The 17-member team selected for the Test matches on the England tour are listed below:
India Test Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain, wicket keeper), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Abhinav Mukund, Wriddhiman Saha, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar
Flash Update: According to the latest reports, Virender Sehwag will atleast miss the first two Test matches. Gautam Gambhir is set to open the innings with A Mukund.
Virender Sehwag is currently nursing a shoulder injury and is certain to miss the first Test match. The inclusion of the senior players has meant that younger players like Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay and Rohit Sharma have been left out of the squad. Yuvraj Singh finds his way back to the Test squad and sites the upcoming tour as his greatest challenge. Uptill now, he has played 34 Test matches with a meagre average of 35.63. In the year 2007-2008, he was dropped from the Test squad for poor performance. He played his last Test against Sri Lanka in 2010 and has three Test centuries to his record.
 In 2007, India toured England for two Tests and seven ODI matches. India won the Test series 1-0. They lost the One Day International (ODI) series 3-4. For the Test match that India won, Zaheer Khan was awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ with 9 wickets. The match also featured a steady innings of 91 by Sachin Tendulkar. |
After winning the 2011 World Cup, the Indian team are on a roll, and on the current tour, the team have accomplished an easy victory over the West Indies.
Currently, England are playing Sri Lanka in a five match One Day International (ODI) Series. In the two ODI matches played, so far, the teams are tied at 1-1. England won the Test series 1-0. England are being skippered by left-handed opening batsman, Alastair Cook. Apart from seniors Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and James Anderson, England have a fairly young side.
Prediction: England will find it difficult to come to terms with an in-form Indian side. Sachin Tendulkar will be aiming for his 100th Hundred, a record that nobody has achieved till now. Currently, the Indian master batsman has 51 Test centuries to his credit. At SportingAttitude, we predict that India will win the Test series.
Breaking news on July 19: Harbhajan Singh’s mother has filed a suit against Vijay Mallya, owner of Royal Challenger Bangalore. Click here to read about it.
Category: Cricket, England Tour
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Contactamipro (Co-Owner) manages day-to-day chores for SportingAttitude.com . He is a Technology Consultant dabbling mainly into Java/JEE programming, architecture, and has proven expertise in SEO Optimization for websites. A champion table-tennis player, during his gilded youth, Contactamipro is passionate about Sport, and especially loves watching Cricket and Tennis. He can be contacted on admin@sportingattitude.com
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sachin make acentury iam your fan
viru get well soon
sehwag come back will help our team a lot, he is always rocking…….come back viru..