Zeenews BureauBangalore, April 06: There is finally some cheer in the Indian camp as Ishant Sharma, who was forced to sit out of the first two Tests against South Africa due a finger injury, has been declared fit and subsequently named in the Indian team’s squad for the third and the final Test match of the Future Cup series to be held in Kanpur, starting April 11.
Munaf Patel, who was a part of the ODI team that won the CB series in Australia, too makes a come back in the longer version. The duo make their way into the team at the expense of a surprisingly off colour RP Singh. An indicator of the extreme spinning nature of the track being prepared at Kanpur, was the surprise inclusions of portly Mumbai off spinner Ramesh Pawar as well as leg spinner Piyush Chawla. With skipper Anil Kumble’s fitness dodgy, as declared by BCCI’s general seceratry Niranjan Shah, and Harbhajan Singh already in the team, the selectors provided further options in the spin department as they decided to announce a 16 member squad for the must win match.
Meanwhile Sreesanth, who bowled some spunky spell in a losing cause at Ahmedabad gets to keep his place in the side and so does opener Wasim Jaffer. Despite what can be best described as patchy performances, for some inexplicable reason, Jaffer continues to retain chairman of selector’s Dilip Vengsarkar’s trust at the expense of Delhi southpaw Gautam Gambhir.
Mohammad Kaif, who replaced an injured Sachin prior to the second Test too has been retained.
Lanky fast bowler, Ishant Sharma, who had suffered from inflammation on his forefinger during the Australian tour, had been adviced, by the outgoing physiotherapist John Gloster, a two-three week rest period from bowling and running. Though he seemed to have recovered before the second Test, he was still kept out as a ‘precautionary measure’.
Indian team management would hope that Ishant Sharma, who burst on to the international scene with a string of superlative performances Down Under, would help India revive its fortunes against South Africa. Going into the final Test of the three match rubber, India trail Proteas 1-0 after losing the Ahmedabad Test inside three days by an innings and 90 runs.
Team:Anil Kumble (Capt), Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni(w), Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel