No change in the team for 3rd Test at Kolkatta

There is many a slip between the Cup and the lip ~ so goes the saying !  The wishlist may be great but most times, you have to comprehend with whatever is made available – mediocrity and lack of decisions are more of rules than exceptions…..

The English spinner Monty Panesar taught Indians a lessons at their own backyard, on a pitch which assisted spin……. There cannot be any reasons for this defeat at Mumbai and anywhere else, heads would have rolled.. afterall, replacements cannot do worser !!

But Team selection in India is a different process ~ driven by more compulsions; the team has been announced today.  Indian selectors have made virtually no change, barring pacer Umesh Yadav who is ruled out due to an injury.  

Yadav, who also missed the second Test, was ruled out with a back injury and has been advised rest for 10 to 12 days. He has been replaced by Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda who was already with the team after being added as cover for Yadav before the Mumbai Test.

Sachin kept his place despite the recent poor shows.  Dhoni continues to be Captain; no word on the coach Duncan Fletcher  ~ the selectors would not want to make changes in the middle of a series !!! what logic !!! ~ non performers would be allowed to continue. 

Harbhajan Singh who bowled rather poorly has also retained his place; there were talks of bringing a leg spinner in the squad ~ only in the Press not an idea envisaged by the Selectors.  So the Indian team for 3rd Test: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli,  Sachin Tendulkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Pragyan Ojha ; Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay and Harbhajan Singh.

The Third Test will be at Eden Gardens Kolkatta from Dec 5^th to 9^th; for the 4^th Test at Nagpur from 13^th Dec – 17^th Dec, team will be announced later; however that is also middle of the series !!!!

Heard of the cliché – ‘if you continue to resolve the problems the same way that you have been ~ you cannot expect different results other than what you had got earlier’.

With regards - S. Sampathkumar