Selectors wake up, RAINA, KARTHIK and SREESHANTH back in team

sorry to say my friend.the selectors just panicked and it shows in the squad for the 2nd test.let me tell you why. [b]first the drop list: saha: poor guy.didnt know why he was even in the squad when both karthik and parthiv were doing a good job with bat and gloves and didnt have no idea why he even played the first test and now he didnt know why he was dropped.another scape goat. abhimanyu mithun: eventhough i am not a big fan of him considering this is his first season in domestic circuit,i heard that this guy is very tall and bowled some very good bouncers in that tournament.true we have a tall guy in the squad but he is pretty much useless now. tyagi: impressed me in the few matches he played and should have been given a chance. why even pick those guys for the squad considering it is a rarity for team india to play 3 seamers that too in home condition? now dropping them without giving them a chance will affect those guys mentally. now the included guys. dinesh karthick: i am pretty much biased towards him and so wont comment on him. suresh raina: i seriously dont think raina is a good choice for test matches. too much of T 20 cricket has spolied him.how many times we have seen him play the ambitious pull shot even when the team is 5 wickets down and he is barely there facing 4 balls? he has never given a hint that he got the patience and temprement of a test match player. having sehwag is one thing because he is one of a kind but suresh raina,never. sreesanth: i was the first person to be happy when sree made his comeback but dont feel the same anymore.reasons not required now for the biggest issue. so our present squad has 2 spinners,3 pacers ,2 wicket keepers,7 batsmen. as one guy rightly asked, WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF ZAHEER TWIST HIS ANKLES JUST BEFORE TOSS AND NOT AVAILABLE FOR THE MATCH?SURELY YOU CANT TRUST ISHANT ,SREE,BHAJJI AND MISHRA TO TAKE 20 WICKETS WHO WERE LOW IN CONFIDENCE?[/b]

I was just about to start this topic and I saw this one. I think this is good pick by selectors this time around... Raina could be almost a replacement for the left handed Yuvraj. And Laxman back in the team is a boost to the middle order and an added advantage. Dinesh Karthik just blasted a couple of double hundreds in domestic cricket recently and he's currently in the form of his life. I think he might be a good replacement for Dravid. I think we are almost set with the batting now... The bowling department now as sreeshanth back. I think Zaheer and Sreeshanth should open the bowling for India. Remember the South African tour 3 years ago? This opening pair dismissed South Africa for just 84 runs in the first innings where Sreeshant ended up taking 5 wickets. India went on to win the match. Zaheer was constantly troubling Smith in that series and this time around, it's seems like it's no different. I think India should play 3 seamers and 1 spinner in this test match, where Ishanth being the 3 bowler. The team for the 2nd test should likely look like this now: 1) G.Gambhir 2) V.Sehwag 3) D.Karthik 4) S.Tendulkar 5) V.Laxman 6) M.Dhoni 7) S.Raina 8) H.Singh 9) Z.Khan 10)S.Sreeshanth 11)I.Sharma I hope Dhoni finds some form in this test match. I also hope the seamers try to get the reverse swing going in this test at least. They missed it in the last test. Good luck to the team

Absolutely, It was the biggest mistake that the in form players were not included in the playing eleven. Its also true about - Sreesanth could have made the difference on a pitch that offered pretty good seam movement - the selectors (claimed) said that he had some injury - and was rested. Virat Kohli is also a potential player - but may be the selectors didn't think that he was experienced enough to wear the test cap - but including Saha and not Kohli doesn't make any sense. The changes will ofcourse provide more stability to the team, but I don't think anything can replace Dravid and Laxman...Lets hope for the best

The selectors made a blunder last match by putting in a very unhealthy and a silly combination as team! They are trying to play the bench players against the best team in the world! Maybe they should have given a chance to these players against Bangladesh and not against South Africa! I think Raina, Karthik can be a good addition to the team!

I guess the selectors have finally done something good. As you mentioned, Virat should have been selected in the team. While I feel dropping Tyagi was not the right thing to do even without giving him a chance, also given the fact that Sreesanth is still not at it's best when it comes to form. But yeah, let's hope it's not all too late and the Indians can win against the Proteas in Kolkata.