Yuvraj dropped, Pujara drafted in Indian Test squad

CHENNAI - All-rounder Yuvraj Singh has been dropped from the Indian cricket squad for the two Test series against Australia and in his place comes in young Saurashtra strokemaker Cheteshwar Pujara.

Pujara, the 22-year old from Rajkot, has been a prolific scorer in the domestic competition and has been waiting in the wings for the last couple of years to get a national call-up.

In 49 matches, Pujara has scored 3,925 runs at an average of 60.38 with 14 centuries and 13 half centuries. Pujara first came to the limelight during the 2006 under-19 World Cup where he emerged as the top scorer.

India will be at full strength as Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and S. Sreesanth return from injuries to boost the bowling attack.

Gautam Gambhir, who missed the second and the third Tests against Sri Lanka due to a swelling in his knee, is also back.

Zaheer missed the series against Sri Lanka due to a shoulder injury and comes in place of Munaf Patel.

Yuvraj, whose omission from the squad has been more or less due to his poor form, will lead a Rest of India team in the Irani Trophy game against Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai Oct 1-5 at Jaipur.

“We don’t have to give any particular reason (for dropping Yuvraj). I think, performance and fitness, everything is taken into account. That itself answers the question,” said K. Srikkanth, chairman of the selection committee when asked the reason behind Yuvraj’s axing.

Yuvraj missed the second Test against Sri Lanka in July due to fever and failed to make the squad for the third Test after his replacement Suresh Raina smashed a century on debut.

Sreesanth, who was set to make a comeback with the Test series against Sri Lanka, was ruled out just before the start of the tour after his knee gave way. Sreesanth has now fully recovered and is ready to share the pace attack with Zaheer.

Abhimanyu Mithun and Wriddhiman Saha, who toured Sri Lanka, failed to find a place in the squad against Australia.

The first Test is scheduled for Oct 1-5 at Mohali and the second at Bangalore Oct 9-13. The series will be followed by three one-day internationals at Kochi (Oct 17), Visakhapatnam (Oct 20) and Goa (Oct 24).

Squad (for Australia): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, S. Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Squad (Rest of India): Yuvraj Singh (captain), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Subramaniam Badrinath, Saurabh Tiwari, Parthiv Patel, Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun and Ravindra Jadeja.