India Ships Odd Names to New Zealand

Even as the New Zealand are in the process of completing their Chappell Hadlee Trophy in Australia, the Indian team for the tour to New Zealand was announced and needless to say that while the core composition was identical, the peripherals did cause a few surprises.

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There would have been little surprises that apart from the team that went to Sri Lanka for the one day series, there would be additions in Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman for the three Test series. Harbhajan Singh also made the predicted comeback as did Munaf Patel who returned home from Sri Lanka with injuries.

But R.P. Singh failed to convince the selectors that he was fit as did Sreesanth who, it is believed, has more than just injuries that he is battling to convince the men that matter that belongs once again at the top level. Certainly a story waiting to develop if he continues to miss wearing the Indian cap longer.

M. Vijay was roped in as the replacement opener though the way Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have performed, India have not needed to look at another opener except when Gambhir missed the fourth match as a ban imposed for nudging Shane Watson.

Dhawal Kulkarni has subsequently booked himself a birth alongside spinner Amit Mishra for the trip to New Zealand and it has been a great reward for the Mumbai bowler who has revived Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy dreams on some exceptional performances in the domestic circuit. Laxmipathy Balaji fills up the final fifth fast bowler spot in the Test squad, a recall that should hopefully inspire him to set alight the international stage as he did in Pakistan four years ago.

Sachin Tendulkar will not expectedly feature in the Twenty20 game but the Pathan brothers, Irfan Pathan and Yousuf Pathan, find themselves in the Twenty20 as well as ODI squads.

The other surprise was the fact that Dinesh Karthik was preferred over Parthiv Patel as the reserve wicket keeper to skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Karthik has been less impressive in recent months and therefore, Parthiv was widely touted to warm the bench in the colder climes of New Zealand.

Here are the list of players in the individual formats:

Twenty20: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Karthik (wk)

ODI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Karthik (wk)

Test: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik (wk)

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