Srikkanth, Chairman of Selectors, Says No Need for Excuses, India Will Bounce Back

Under pressure and scrutiny following the first two Tests of the India England series, the Indian chairman of selectors, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, does not believe any explanations regarding team selections or performance are necessary because he believes the team will bounce back.

Sounding rather optimistic when announcing India’s ODI squad for the England series, the former Indian cricketer refused to entertain questions about the players’ fitness and injuries that have marred the first two Tests, both of which India have lost including the second Test at Trent Bridge that saw India lose by a margin of 319 runs. Instead in his own style, Srikkanth said there were no place for complaints or for looking back.

Instead Srikkanth reflected on the unfortunate injuries to Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan while touching upon the fact that Virender Sehwag had arrived in England and that Zaheer Khan was on the road to getting fit as was Gautam Gambhir. Srikkanth was confident the trio would return for India’s third Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham and help India turn around their fortunes.

Srikanth chose to empathize with the team rather than answer queries about the questionable nature of fitness of some of the players that did make the Test team, stating instead that the Indian cricket team had been through tough times enough to know it was necessary to stage a comeback and they had it in them to come back.

There are times when team goes through a tough phase and this particular series has been one like that. We lost the first two Test matches, but I am confident of a strong comeback by the boys. During South Africa series, we lost the first Test badly and then we came back strongly and won the second Test match and almost won the series.

While there is little doubt that the Indian cricket cannot be underestimated, it is also Srikkanth’s flamboyant style of fending off questions that have kept those burning questions at bay. With two Tests still remaining in the series, there is going to be tremendous pressure on the Indian cricket team to prevent England from winning the series and taking the no.1 Test team tag from them but also, to ensure that even as the board and selectors have already come under attack over the itinerary and selection of players and the preparation before it, nothing like victory would be able to brush all those disturbing issues under the carpet.

Srikkanth is expecting a turn around of fortunes not only for the Indian ODI team but also, in the Test series that will still see two more grueling Tests, arguably India’s toughest since being crowned no.1 even as England eye stupendous success if they can continue to put the visitors under pressure. The return of seasoned cricketers is expected to boost India’s chances tremendously even though the players have not really had a workout in competitive cricket for quite sometime and are returning from injuries that have needed some recuperation time and may just be a little tentative. However, only a strong Indian performance can bail out the entire cricket establishment. Srikkanth is certainly optimistic about it.