After Eden loss, Zaheer, Yuvi and Harbhajan axed

National selectors dropped hints of parting ways with a few of the central characters of the golden era of Indian cricket, dropping Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh from the squad for the fourth Test beginning at Nagpur on December 15.

Delhi pacer Parvinder Awana, UP leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and Saurashtra middle-order batsman Ravindra Jadeja took their places respectively while the selectors decided to keep their faith with the other struggling players in the team, including Sachin Tendulkar.
The move followed India’s seven-wicket defeat to England in the third Test at the Eden Gardens here.

Zaheer’s is the heaviest blow as this is the first time the Mumbai pacer has been dropped from the Indian squad since starting a fine run dating back to the 2007 tour of England. This year, however, his form and fitness have suffered a downward slide. The left-arm seamer has managed just 15 wickets from eight Tests at a strike-rate of 97.9.

Indian skipper M S Dhoni made it clear that there was nothing wrong with the fitness of Zaheer. “As far as the fitness is concerned, he has been this way for the last few years. Definitely he is not unfit. Just that the England batsmen are doing well (against Zaheer).
But as far as the bowling is concerned he is still bowling quite the same. He is swinging it both ways,” Dhoni said. His statement, though made ahe­ad of the selection meeting, made it clear that form was held against the veteran pacer.

It’s also understood that the bigwigs were not quite happy with Zaheer’s fielding as well, as he has been a trundler in the outfield recently. Once a batsman capable of scoring some valuable runs down the order, Zaheer’s batting has also gone down a lot in the last couple of years, making him a one-dimensional cricketer. His replacement Awana has taken 21 wickets in the Ranji Trophy matches thus far at a shade over 21.

Yuvraj’s omission was expected after failing to make any substantial contribution since making a 74 in the first innings of the first Test at Motera. Dhoni has also rarely used him as a left-arm spinner. His replacement Jadeja had to face some competition from Manoj Tiwary and Rohit Sharma. But the selectors went with Jadeja as the left-hander has scored two triple hundreds this season against Gujarat and Railways in one month’s span, besides taking 23 wickets with his left-arm spin.

Harbhajan was placed under the axe once he produced a rather listless spell on a spiteful Wankhede pitch in the second Test, though he could get to bowl only 23 overs in the entire match. The choice of Chawla for Harbhajan was quite bemusing because the leggie has bagged just nine wickets at 48.33 so far in Ranji Trophy.