da esoccer bet： Virender Sehwag and Munaf Patel were reinducted into the 15-man squad for the series against Sri Lanka while Suresh Raina, Ramesh Powar and Gautam Gambhir found themselves excluded
Anand Vasu in Mumbai03-Feb-2007
Virender Sehwag is back in the squad but the selectors want him ‘to bat in the middle-order’ © Getty Images
Virender Sehwag and Munaf Patel, as expected, make a comeback to the Indiansquad as Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control forCricket in India, announced the 15-man squad for the first two one-dayinternationals against Sri Lanka. There was also a place in the squad forSreesanth, on top of the twelve that played the last match against WestIndies at Baroda.When asked if this was the squad that would also go to the World Cup,Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors, suggested that it was close to what the selection committee and the team management had in mind, but did not completely rule out the possibility of changes. Vengsarkar indicated that the team for the WorldCup would “probably” be selected from this fifteen plus Ramesh Powar,Suresh Raina and Gautam Gambhir, the three to miss out from the current selection.”He needed a break because he was not in good form,” Vengsarkar said of Sehwag. “He has gone back and worked on his batting. I hope he does well in his comeback, whether he bats and No.4, 5 or 6.” At the same time, Vengsarkar did not rule out the possibility ofSehwag opening the batting, saying it was the team think-tank who decided on thebatting order. However he did strongly suggest that the selection committee “wanted Sehwag to bat in the middle-order.”Shah revealed that Munaf had been “cleared” of his fitness troubles, andwas declared fully fit by John Gloster, the physiotherapist of the Indianteam. Munaf last played for India in a Test against South Africa.There has been some concern over Sreesanth’s economy rate in one-dayers.In the last series against West Indies, he picked up two wickets at 73apiece, at an economy rate of 7.82. “Sreesanth needs to work on his length a little bit. In Test matches, where the ball is doing a bit, it’s ok to bowl full,” said Vengsarkar.”But in one-day cricket, especially in Indian conditions where the ball isnot moving in the air or off the pitch, he needs to adjust his length.”The selection committee met at the new offices of the BCCI at the WankhedeStadium, along with Greg Chappell, the coach, and Rahul Dravid, thecaptain. The only absentee was SLV Raju, the South Zone representative onthe selection committee, as he was back home in Hyderabad as a result of abereavement.Shah also announced that the team for the final two one-dayers, along withthe team for the World Cup, would be picked in Mumbai on February 12.SquadRahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, R Uthappa, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Virender Sehwag, Sreesanth