Men In Blue Get Going From Wednesday

tags:Sports

Three day camp in Bangalore for Wednesday.

The new look Indian cricket team, will set the ball rolling for this season with a three day camp commencing in Bangalore from tomorrow. The team will face the Sri Lankans in seven one- day matches as the season opener, from the 25 th of this month.

The team which seems to have been picked keeping in mind the Indian team’s build up to the 2007 world cup, will sport several young members, not to mention ‘the wall’ who will steer the team’s ship for this and the next series, also helpful for the team will be the return of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar to the big stage after a six-month injury layoff.

The details of the camp to prepare the team for the twin series were been fixed today by coach Greg Chappell, trainer Gregory King and bio-mechanics expert Ian Frazer at the National Cricket Academy. The first day's action will be indoors, followed by nets on the ground in the next two days. All 15 members are expected to report from tomorrow itself, while Dravid and vice-captain Virendra Sehwag, who were part of the World XI team against Australia in the Super Test in Sydney, might join by tomorrow evening.

Besides Dravid, Tendulkar, who has returned to the team after a long injury layoff, and Kerala speedster Sreesanth, the lone new face in the squad, are expected to be under the spotlight.

After the seven-match one-day series against Sri Lanka, India will play a five-match ODI series against South Africa from Nov 16.

The team for the first two matches is : Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Y. Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Jai Prakash Yadav, Sreesanth, Gautam Gambhir and Rudra Pratap Singh.

The side has seven batsmen, an ODI all-rounder in Yadav, two spinners, four pacemen and a wicket-keeper. The reson for picking only two spinners is that Sri Lankans are good players of spin.

This relatively inexperienced side will be put to task by the Sri Lankans with the still explosive Sanath Jayasuriya and the smooth-stroking Marvan Atapattu. It could be hard going. The bowling department which let itself down in the Cup finals in both Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, can not afford to be inconsistent against the hard-hitting Lankans. Who will leave no stone unturned to make things difficult for the Indians.

How the team fairs this season still needs to be seen, their performances will decide whether they get bricks or bats. But, with the composition of the team, the selectors seem to be looking ahead, which surely is a positive sign for Indian cricket.