Indian team to WI to be chosen today

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 -- The Indian selectors will have equal headaches as the tired Indian players as they convene to select the team for the West Indies tour. The series includes four ODIs and one T20I and will come at the back of a dismal ICC Word T20 performance where the team lost all their games in the Super Eights.

It has been said that Sachin Tendulkar has conveyed his intentions of giving the series a miss because he has yet to recover from a hairline fracture that he suffered during the Indian Premier League. With Virender Sehwag in the injury-list as well, with a grade-I tear to the shoulder, it means that both the frontline openers that India has apart from a third in Gautam Gambhir, will not be on that flight to England. Team India will need a second opener to partner Gautam Gambhir, despite having Rohit Sharma as an option, who performed reasonably well in the World T20 tournament.
The options available for the Indian selectors here are Virat Kohli, M.Vijay, Dinesh Karthik or even a Manish Pandey who had recently become the first ever Indian to score a century in the IPL. Kohlia had a superlative season at the Indian first class level, while Vijay was selected for a test match against Australia and did well in the game. Karthik’s inclusion could give the option of a second wicket-keeper, but one isn’t sure whether he would be a right choice opener in the shorter format of the game.
Amongst bowlers as well, Zaheer Khan may not make it to the squad. As a premier Indian bowler, he has done enough to earn that rest, and after his shoulder injury it would augur well too. Munaf Patel, who wasn’t a part of the World T20 side will most definitely get a call back, because he has had a decent couple of series leading up to the IPL too.

The selectors will meet up today to decide the squad, and there could be a surprise or two as they rest some of the cricketers after a long, tiring haul.