Yuvraj, Gambhir dropped for Champions Trophy
It is never easy to pick a squad for an overseas series when the domestic cricket season has already ended and the last limited overs international series dates back to January. When the national selection committee headed by Sandeep Patil met in Mumbai to name the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England, they were forced to go by the performance in the IPL and the Test series against Australia before that. To their credit, the five-wise men did not deter from taking bold calls when it came to established stars in the team.
Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh, the two senior players who played a stellar role in the 2011 World Cup were axed from the squad while all-rounder Irfan Pathan, wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and leggie Amit Mishra were recalled owing to their impressive performances in the IPL. Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, R. Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were certain to make the cut along with skipper M.S. Dhoni.
The biggest surprise of the day however, was the inclusion of Murali Vijay as the second specialist opener to partner Shikhar Dhawan, who has impressed on his comeback in IPL after his record-breaking start in the Test series.
Vijay last played an ODI in 2011 and has never managed to score a fifty in his 11 appearances for India. Though Gambhir averages only 24.90 in his last 10 ODI innings, he was seen as a likely candidate as Vijay is struggling for form in the IPL.
The Chennai Super Kings batsman has only aggregated 122 runs in
Selectors showed that emotions and reputation mean little by dropping Yuvraj from the squad despite his prior experience of the English conditions
eight matches with one fifty. Gambhir on the other hand, has scored 320 runs from 11 games at 29 with three half-centuries.
The selectors showed that emotions and reputation mean little by dropping Yuvraj from the squad despite his prior experience of the English conditions. .
SQUAD M.S. Dhoni (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Irfan Patan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Vinay Kumar.