Indian Team selection for SA series on January 28

After the series win over Bangladesh, the focus now shifts to the home series against South Africa due to start from February. With the Indian team due to be selected on Jauary 28, there are suddenly some vacancies in the Indian Test team. Consider this: Four Indian players were injured in the series against Bangaldesh. Already VVS Laxman and S. Sreesanth were ruled out of the series due to injury, and now, however unfortunate as it may seem, Rahul Dravid received a severe blow in the jaw during the second Test which kept him out of the match while Yuvraj Singh, who was in the final XI, couldn’t take the field due to a ligament injury.


Indian Team selection for SA series on January 28

After the series win over Bangladesh, the focus now shifts to the home series against South Africa due to start from February. With the Indian team due to be selected on Jauary 28, there are suddenly some vacancies in the Indian Test team. Consider this: Four Indian players were injured in the series against Bangaldesh. Already VVS Laxman and S. Sreesanth were ruled out of the series due to injury, and now, however unfortunate as it may seem, Rahul Dravid received a severe blow in the jaw during the second Test which kept him out of the match while Yuvraj Singh, who was in the final XI, couldn’t take the field due to a ligament injury.



• VVS Laxman injured his left hand while attempting a catch at first slip in Chittagong, during the first Test.
• S. Sreesanth strained his hamstring while bowling in the second innings of the first Test,
• Dravid fractured his jaw after being hit by a bouncer from Shahadat, and
• Yuvraj Singh has injured his left wrist.

The injuries mean that three best middle order batsmen are in doubt to be in the upcoming series against South Africa. This fact has suddenly opened the opportunities for players from Club RCB to be featured in the Indian team.

For instance, Virat Kohli, who is now a regular member of the Indian ODI team could find himself in the test team as well. He has been in tremendous form with the bat notching up two centuries in the recent series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Virat can easily be fit into the middle order in Test team for the SA series.

Another name which surely will be making the rounds is Manish Pandey. The breaveheart batsman was the top scorer in the Ranji Trophy 2009-2010 season at 882 runs at an average of 63. His aggressive style of batting and the brilliant 144 in the Ranji Finals caught everybody’s attention – including the national selectors who were present in the finals. Realistically, Manish can sneak in to the Indian ODI team in the SA series, while getting chance in the Test team may be a difficult task right now.

There shouldn’t be any doubt, however with the performances of Royal Challenger Abhimanyu Mithun. The fiery pacer exuded confidence and speed during the Ranji Season. On placid domestic wickets, Mithun along with another Royal Challenger Vinay Kumar picked up 47 and 46 wickets to be the top two wicket takers of the country. Mithun was also clocking 140s regularly during the Ranji Finals. Surely, the selectors will give some serious thinking on these two.

Do you think they would be picked?