Abhishek Nayar & Ajinkya Rahane to play in Champions Trophy

Mumbai, July 8: In a move consistent with their recent policy for limited overs matches, the national selectors on Tuesday ignored former captains Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly while naming 30 Indian probables for the ICC Champions Trophy in September.

Sachin Tendulkar was the only player from among the Fab Four who found a place in the list announced by Cricket Board secretary Niranjan Shah after the selection panel's meeting in Mumbai.

Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan, axed from the 16-strong Test squad for the Sri Lanka tour, expectedly found berths in the probables list.

Also included were national under-19 captain Virat Kohli of Delhi, Saurashtra all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Mumbai youngsters’ all-rounder Abhishek Nayar and batsman Ajinkya Rahane.

Both Dravid, who is 35, and Ganguly - celebrating his 36th birthday on Tuesday, have failed to secure places in the ODI squads after the home series against Australia and Pakistan respectively held late in 2007.

The duos, with a combined experience of over 600 ODIs, were left out of the triangular series won by India for the first time in Australia.

The pair then failed to find a place in the last two one-day tournaments played by India - the tri-series in Bangladesh last month and the Asia Cup that concluded in Pakistan last Sunday - after playing in the T20 Indian Premier League as iconic players for their respective outfits.

The decision of the selectors to ignore the claims of this vastly experienced pair of batsmen, each of whom has scored over 10000 runs in ODIs, has virtually ended their glittering careers in the shorter forms of the international game.

Tendulkar, who masterminded India's historic victory Down Under, was expectedly named in the probables list which has to be pruned at least a month before the start of the tournament which is scheduled for September 11 as per the International Cricket Council's rules and regulations.

The probables: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, R P Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Manpreet Singh Gony, Pragyan Ojha, Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Kaarthick, S Badrinath, Mohammed Kaif, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Pankaj Singh, Murali Kartik, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Yusuf Pathan and S Sreesanth.

Indian Express.

1st Exclusive Interview: Ishant Sharma and Aakash Sharma

Mumbai crowd is probably the worst crowd in the world: Ishant Sharma and Aakash Chopra:

I had the good fortune of meeting Ishant Sharma and Aakash Sharma for an interview with OK! magazine and they said that the Mumbai crowd was probably the worst crowd in the world. I suppose that maybe that’s a complement because when they play for the Knight Riders and come down to the city to compete against our team it goes to show that we, as fans, can put the opposition off track.

I tried explaining to them that it was nothing personal and that we would still support them during their international performances, it’s just that when they are against a team we are supporting how can they expect us to be amicable and shout “Come on Aakash!” or “Bowl Sachin out Ishant”? and even that they got a little bit of. Of all the away teams, the Knight Riders had a largest fan following in Mumbai. It was different that their shoddy performance left their support sitting silently in utter disbelief.

Aakash went on to say that the crowd has been so rowdy at times that during a test match against Australia in the 2003-04 season they even booed Sachin. I was a little short of words. I remember that game. I stuttered and replied saying “very few people can actually go up to the man and say, “Listen Sachin, I think your initial movement, with your front foot, towards the pitch of the ball is a little hesitant and thus catches you playing late.” No one has the right to tell him that- He is a God.

The reason the home crowd did that, was because he had failed the entire test series and the high expectation of him performing at home left the mob frustrated. We never did stop supporting him, only letting him know that no matter how great he is, he must show a power to overcome failure, because that’s what champions do. It appeared that he had lost his appetite to succeed and needed a new challenge. We gave him one.

I reminded the opener that even through the IPL when Sachin failed, he got a standing ovation every time.

I felt my opinion though was probably just something I needed to say to defend the Mumbaikars, we have booed our God and there is no excuse for that, unless someone has a better outlook than mine as to why it happened.

Comment.

Read the July edition of OK! India for the entire interview.