The Indian team for the first Test match against South Africa has been named and it has a couple of surprising names. For starters, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh have been ruled out of the Test match due to their injury.
Dravid had been hit on his helmet in the second Test match in Bangladesh by Shahadat Hossain and was sent sprawling down. He was in the hospital for a day before being discharged but the doctors have advised him rest for a couple of weeks. Yuvraj Singh had a hand injury during the series and could not bat in the second Test match due to which he has been ruled of the entire series against South Africa.
However, rather surprisingly, the Indian selectors have chosen only one replacement batsman for the two of them in S. Badrinath. And that essentially means, Badrinath will definitely make it to the playing eleven for the game, along with Murali Vijay, both from Tamil Nadu. Badrinath has been a part of the Indian squad for some time now, but has never played a Test match before. Vijay has played three Tests, two in the absence of Gautam Gambhir and one in place of VVS Laxman.
Incidentally, Laxman has been declared fit after he was sent back before the start of the second Test due to a hand injury. It does look like he will bat at number three position, where he had scored his 281 in the Kolkata Test match of 2001. In all probabilities, Vijay will come in at number five, whereas Badri at six and Dhoni at seven.
Amongst the bowlers, S. Sreesanth continues to struggle with his strained hamstring and hence will be out of the squad. In his place, the selectors have plumped in for Abhimanyua Mithun, who has had an excellent Ranji season with the ball in the hand. Sudeep Tyagi continues with his place in the side, but in all probabilities, India will go into the game with two medium pace bowlers and two spinners, ensuring that both Tyagi and Mithun will warm the benches.
Wriddhiman Saha has been selected to replace Dinesh Karthik as the back-up wicket-keeper. Karthik hasn’t had the best of times behind the stumps and his batting has continued to flounder as well.
