Four years after he was dropped from the Test side, leg-spinner Amit Mishra has been recalled for the Test tour of Sri lanka in August. Mishra, who replaced injured Karn Sharma in the team that travelled to Bangladesh last month, was the only change in the 15-member squad announced on Thursday.
Karn and fast bowler Mohammed Shami were not considered for selection because of fitness problems. Karn had been ruled out of India’s tour of Zimbabwe earlier this month with a fractured finger while Shami has been recovering from knee surgery.
“Amit Mishra has always been part of our thinking. If you remember, even last year he was in the reserves [for the West Indies series]. The final authority of picking the XI is the role of the captain and the team management. Why A was not played and why B was picked it is not what we get into. looking at the conditions, we have picked him for this Sl tour,” chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil said on Thursday
It seemed that selectors were impressed with Harbhajan Singh, who made his return on the Bangladesh tour and took three wickets in one-off Test, as the off-spinner retained his place in the squad.
Opener Kl Rahul, who had missed the Test in Bangladesh because of dengue fever, was also included in the squad giving captain Virak Kohli a problem of plenty as he will to choose from three openers — Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay being the other two — in Sri lanka.
The middle order pretty much selected itself and would be manned by Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma.
But the selectors did not pick a back-up wicketkeeper for Wriddhiman Saha. There were speculations that Naman Ojha or Parthiv Patel might accompany the team. “We have a standby wicketkeeper we have nominated,” Patil said.
“Secretary and selectors, we are aware who is the wicketkeeper nominated if there is injury on the Sri lanka tour.
“Does he have the technique or not, time will tell,” Patil said of Saha batting at No. 6.
“We’ve backed him looking at his performance in domestic cricket. The kind of experience he carries. You immediately cannot replace someone like Dhoni and come in and deliver the results. But we certainly feel that Wriddhiman is the right option and looking at his ability in batting as well, he should strike a good balance,” he added.
Asked whether the selectors discussed seniors like Gambir, Patil said, “They were not discussed.”
The selectors opted for a three specialist spinners in R Ashwin, Harbhajan and Mishra while there are four pacers — Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron.
Patil said performances of the players during the Zimbabwe tour was also taken into account. “We did discuss the Zimbabwe tour. My co-selectors were there and they have given the feedback. We are very happy with the kind of performances, they have delivered. We are not looking at the age but the fitness of the players and whether the players fit in the team combination,” he said.
There seems a stamp of Kohli on the squad as some of the players who used to feature in MS Dhoni’s scheme of things don’t find place in the squad now.
“look, there will always be a change in the mix with change of captain. Every captain has his own outlook and perspective when he is leading the side. Someone may be an offensive captain, someone may be a defensive captain. But yes, approach of the captain defines that particular period.
“We expect Virat to do well but we cannot predict the future. When Sachin (Tendulkar), Dada (Ganguly), Rahul (Dravid) and VVS (laxman) retired, we never thought we would get immediate replacements but we got them.”