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Hyderabad,
Nov 16: Rookie seamers Irfan Pathan and Avishkar Salvi made
it to the 16-member squad for India's four-match Test series
against Australia beginning next month as the national
selectors preferred pace over spin keeping in mind the fast
and bouncy pitches Down Under. The stress on pace means
India would be travelling with just two spinners on board in
Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh while there would be ample
support for the two left-arm seamers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer
Khan with Ajit Agarkar and the two uncapped youngsters in
tow.
A
marathon six-hour meeting over two sessions yesterday saw
the initial 20-member probables list being pruned to 16 and
losing out on berths were left-arm spinner Murali Kartik,
paceman Laxmipathy Balaji, middle-order bat Hemang Badani
and the aggressive bat Yuvraj Singh. The selectors, who had
deferred the selection by three days on Thursday to watch
the performance of India in their last league match against
New Zealand yesterday, had consultations at length with
skipper Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright before
announcing past midnight the final list which included
Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman Deep Dasgupta, batsmen Sadagopan
Ramesh and Aakash Chopra.
Given the
final composition of the squad, the only surprise decision
was the inclusion of 19-year-old Baroda bowler Irfan Pathan
who guided the Under-19 team to Asia Cup triumph recently.
Cricket Board secretary S K Nair said the selectors
deliberated considerably on whether to take three spinners
or five pacemen before eventually deciding on the latter.
(Agencies)
Published:
Sunday, November 16, 2003
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