As Australia are packing their bags to leave for India for the seven ODI home series from October 25 to November 11, a lot of action is building up on the Indian front with coaches being sacked and team combinations being changed by the Board of Control for Cricket and the selection committee.
Taking the long-awaited decision, the BCCI sacked the bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh from their roles with immediate effect according to a release.
The fielding and bowling standards have gone down considerably in the last two tournaments, which propelled the decision to sack the Indian coaches. A short one-line release informed the media of the decision and did not specify any reason for the same though sources claimed that the call was taken considering poor performance of the team in the last two key tournaments. While media was informed, Prasdad seemed unaware of the development. He said that he had not been told about the sacking and would immediately contact the BCCI for enquiring “what went wrong”.
While sources also told that the vacancies would be filled in shortly, it is presumed that the decision, of which captain and coach were not a part, was spelt out on Wednesday by the BCCI office-bearers.
It is presumed that apart from inconsistent bowling and poor fielding on the part of Indian team, another reason for axing Prasad is the sudden fall in the performance of Ishant Sharma who started-off as a pace sensation. The lanky bowler has been struggling with his form for the past few games and sources close to Prasad inform that his fall began from Indian Premier League.
In another major development, Rahul Dravid who was included in the One-day squad to strengthen the middle-order has been shown the door for first two ODIs in the upcoming India-Australia home series. Instead, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag who were out of action because of injuries are fit and fine to start afresh and have been called in place of Dravid and Dinesh Karthik.
While others, Yusuf Pathan and Rudra Pratap Singh who have been struggling with their ODI forms currently have been replaced by bowler Munaf Patel and batsman Ravindra Jadeja. Also, uncapped Sudeep Tyagi who put up a good show in the recently concluded NKP Salve Challengers Trophy has been given a chance by replacing Abhishek Nayyar.
Jadeja’s knock of 77 and Munaf’s five wicket haul together granted the Rest of India a match-winning lead in the October 1-5 Irani Trophy. Also, Munaf took the most number of wickets in the Challengers Trophy.
Rahul Dravid’s exclusion was expected. What do you think?
