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Saturday, December 19, 2015

Squad to Australia ~ Raina dropped from ODI, Brainder Sran in ....

In Jan 2016, India will play 5 One dayers and 3 T20s in Australia  ~ the squad has been announced and it has many surprises ! ~ are we back to 2003 in some ways ?
When it rained and rained in Chennai, Tamil Nadu played a Ranji match against Punjab at Dindigul.  On day 1, the victim was the Umpire - a blistering shot off the bat of Punjab’s Brainder Sran struck the back of the head of visiting Australian umpire John Ward, who immediately clutched the back of his head and collapsed onto the ground.   He is out of danger – but how many of us would have read about this Sran at at that time ? – now this left-arm seamer, left hand bat is in news.

Reportedly, Brainder, as a teenager, was once not just another boy pursuing a career in boxing, but was honing his skills at the country’s punching nursery – Bhiwani before joining the Punjab team. He was honing his skills under the same coach who produced famous  Vijender Singh. In fact, Brainder, weighing 75 kilos back then, found himself in the same weight category as the India’s most famous pugilist.  Brainder was bought by the Jaipur franchise Rajasthan Royals in the 2015 auction in the 8th  edition of the Indian Premier League at his base price 10 lakh.

T20I squad: MS Dhoni (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Harbhajan Singh, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra.

ODI squad: MS Dhoni (capt), R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Brainder Sran.

Sadly, the man who has played 18 tests (768 runs); 223 ODI (5568) and 46 T20 (983) is out of ODI squad. Way back in May 2010 at the island country in the eastern Carribean sea founded in 1886 by Sir Arthur Sidders - St. Lucia  against South Africa, he made a century in a T20. SK Raina walked in of the fourth ball of the first over with score reading 4/1 and achieved what only 2 players [Gayle & Mccullum] had done at that time.  In over no. 18 Raina plundered 25 off Kelinveldt and reached his century in the last over.

Suresh Raina and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been dropped from India's ODI squad for the upcoming tour of Australia, following a poor home series against South Africa.  A rejigged ODI squad includes a maiden call-up for Punjab's 23-year-old left-arm pacer Brainder Sran, as well as a recall for Manish Pandey, who made his international debut against Zimbabwe in July.

How many of us predicted this side ?  ~ and that of Ashish Nehra – who last played a Test at Rawalpindi in Apr 2004; last ODI at Mohali against Pak in Mar 2011; and last T20 at Durban in Jan 2011.  He made his test debut against Sri Lanka at Colombo playing alongside : Sadagopan Ramesh, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohd Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad & Harbhajan Singh.  Except Bhaji, all have retired from all forms of cricket ~ and Nehra is in the squad !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
19th Dec 2015.


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