Indian Cricket Team Selection: Old Wine in a New Bottle

Contrary to expectations, the Indian selectors did no great job while picking the test and ODI teams for Bangladesh tour. The only notable decision taken was to "rest" Sachin and Saurav for the ODI series against Bangladesh. However, they will be back for the test series. Sehwag was dropped from the test squad, however, he still managed to get a place in ODI team. There will be no vice-captain for the Bangladesh tour.

Not surprisingly, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan were dropped from both the test and ODI squads. However, some of the non-performers like Sehwag, Dhoni, VRV Singh and Robin Utthappa were retained in place of some potential youngsters like S. Badrinath, Ranadeb Bose, Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma. Selectors recalled Piyush Chawala, Romesh Powar, RP Singh, Dinesh Mongia and Gautam Gambhir to the ODI team, while Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary was the only new face in the team.

Left arm spinner Rajesh Pawar is the only new face in the test team. He replaced Harbhajan Singh, who has been struggling with his form for a few months. Let's wait and watch how the team fares against a spirited Bangladesh, which dashed India's hope of making it the Super 8 stage in the ongoing World Cup.

The ODI Squad: Rahul Dravid (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, M S Dhoni, Dinesh Kaarthick, Manoj Tiwari, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Pawar, Dinesh Mongia.

The Test Squad: Rahul Dravid (capt), Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, M S Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, V R V Singh, Munaf Patel, Anil Kumble, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar.