Saurav Ganguly, the former captain of India, who lead India to the World Cup Final in 2003 has been dropped for the upcoming Commonwealth Bank One Day International Series against Australia and Sri Lanka starting on February 3rd.
Ganguly has been in great form since his return to the Indian Team, recently scoring his first double century against Pakistan. Apart from the 3rd test at Perth, were India dominated the Aussies, he has been very consistent.
Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, explains why Saurav was dropped “The emphasis was on fielding abilities and they wanted a young fielding side for the ODI series. That’s why you see a lot of youngsters in the side”
Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were also ignored during the selection.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Kumble brought the team together. But BCCI and selectors spoiled that. after humuliation in sydney, it is now to win the series and draw the test series and come back like heroes. Youngsters can be given chance next series. What sort of people are there in BCCI god only knows.Yuvraj can be rested and ganguly should be back and Laxman also. First BCCI not acted on time during sydney controversy and now announcing team before 4th test( crucial one). Because winning the 4th test is National pride.Still they can retain them. Protests should be there all over India not only in kolkatta.Yesterday India was happy, but today BCCI spoiled that happiness.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
The selectors have been bloody STUPID. Can they not see that the likes of Yuvaraj & Dhoni (and Gautam Gambhir) who are very good on Asian pitches are totally inadequate in technique for the Australian pitches?!? The Aussies will make absolute bunnies of them and reverse all the good work the seniors have done to bring glory to the Indian team during this test series. None of the youngsters have scored…nor will they!
Shame on the selectors!
January 20th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I think we need to view this from Robin and Rohit’s point of view (and not Sourav’s and Dravid’s) if they are our best bets for February 2011. To put it into real perspective, it is like continuing with Gavaskar or Vishawanath in 2004 knowing fully well they are not going to play any role in the 2007 World Cup.
Having said that, it could have been done in style. Shaun Pollock was kept in the team for several matches but not included in playing 11 before being given a chance to make a fairy take exit. This allowed Dale Steyn to establish himself and even become Number 3 in ICC rankings. Similarly, Ganguly and Dravid could have been kept in the team but only included in the playing eleven if India was about to loose to Sri Lanka and make an exit from the three nation tournament. If Karthik or Gambhir still need dressing room experience, they still have plenty of time - what value will they serve replacing the experience of over 20,000 runs and 600 matches? We Indians and our bloated egos - we can’t do anything in style. Learn from South Africa - learn to keep a senior player (who is also a legend and a former captain) in the team and not include him in the playing eleven. And the players - learn that this is not a humiliation but just the way it should be. Any self respecting player will walk out on his own,in this situation, but after giving a glorious performance for one last time.
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
The selectors will realise their mistake at the end of this tri-sreies.Tendulkar and Ganguly are still the best one day openers.It’s very unlikely that Tendulkar is also going to play in 2011 world cup, so the justification the selectors gave doesn’t hold.Besides tendulkar, there is hardly any batsman in this selected team who is in form in international cricket.Also it will be difficult for the players to focus on the Adelaide test which is so important