AFTER three failures against West Indies, Yuvraj Singh has been dropped from the Indian squad for the third Test in Mumbai while Rohit Sharma comes in. Axed off-spinner Harbhajan Singh remains out.
Rohit, who has played 67 ODIs for India, has shown good form in the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai. He made 175 against Railways followed by 100 against Rajasthan.
He is currently playing a home fixture against Karnataka at the Brabourne Stadium. The third Test will be played in Mumbai from November 22.
Rohit will have to compete for a place in the eleven with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, who haven’t had a chance so far against West Indies.
Yuvraj, who will be 30 next month, has played 37 Tests since his debut in 2003, but hasn’t been able to cement a place in the side. Against West Indies in the on-going Test series, he has made 23, 18 and 25.
Through much of the last decade, Yuvraj couldn’t break into the Test side thanks to the heavily-packed and formidable Indian middle order, made up of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and MS Dhoni.
He was a regular Test fixture in the post-Ganguly era. But in 2010, his poor run and fitness issues coincided with Suresh Raina’s hundred on Test debut.
After being the man of the tournament in the World Cup and with Raina struggling to produce big scores in Tests, Yuvraj was back in the Tests in England, only to injure a finger in the Nottingham Test.
Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin have taken 13 wickets each in the two West Indies Tests, and this has shut out any possibility of a comeback for Harbhajan.
The veteran offie with 406 Test wickets has been lacklustre in the First Class fixtures he has played for Punjab.
In the Ranji Trophy, he had match figures of 0-92 against Uttar Pradesh and 1-50 against Orissa.
Squad: MS Dhoni (C), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, R. Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron. (Yahoo! Cricket)