Sehwag makes way for Pujara in ODI squad against England

January 7, 2013

shewag

New Delhi, Jan 7: The Sandeep Patil-led National Selection committee bit the bullet and axed senior batsman Virender Sehwag from India’s squad for the first three ODIs against England.

Sehwag’s exclusion from the playing eleven in the final one-dayer against Pakistan on Sunday was an ominous sign of things to come in Sehwag’s way. Young Ajinkya Rahane, who had been waiting in the wings for quite some time now, was selected in his place.

It’s a different matter that the Mumbai batsman managed just four runs at Feroze Shah Kotla here on Sunday in the third one-dayer.

Sehwag has been going through a prolonged slump in form in all formats of the game and speculation was rife that the axe may fall on him. Sehwag has averaged just 22.54 in the last 11 one-dayers he has played in the last 12 months.

This is the second time the Delhi batsman has been dropped from the Indian squad, the first time being in 2007 before he made a comeback the next year in Australia.

Saurashtra batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who has been in fine form in Tests and in the ongoing domestic season, has been drafted in his place to bolster the middle-order.

The top order has been consistently crumbling of late and the lack of runs from Sehwag and his partner Gautam Gambhir has not helped India’s cause. Sehwag has scored just one half century in 12 innings.

Pujara has been impressive in the Test series against England, scoring two hundreds at Ahmedabad and Mumbai in the first and second Tests respectively. He had been scoring consistently at the domestic level as well and also made a double century in Ranji Trophy against Madhya Pradesh last week, where he reached 200 from 150 in just 17 balls.

The sword was also hanging on Gambhir but for the moment he has been retained in the 15-member squad. While Gambhir has done little of note in Tests and T20s in the last one year or so, his record in one-dayer has been encouraging. Surprisingly, the selectors continued to show faith in Rohit Sharma despite his long struggle with the bat.

As expected, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed have been retained.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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News Network
January 13,2020

Mumbai, Jan 13: India captain Virat Kohli indicated at dropping himself down the batting order to accommodate both Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul in the playing XI against Australia in the first ODI of the three-match series starting Tuesday.

With vice-captain Rohit Sharma an automatic pick, the team management is left with tough choice of selecting either Dhawan or Rahul in the XI. But the skipper sees no reason why both can't play together.

"Look, a guy in form is always good for the team. ...You obviously want to have the best players available and then chose from what the combination should be for the team. There might be a possibility that all three (Rohit, Shikhar and Rahul) might play. It will be interesting to see what balance we want to take in on the field," Kohli said on the eve of the match.

Asked if he would he be happy to bat lower down the order, Virat said,"Yeah, big possibility. I would be very happy to do so. Look I am not possessive about where I play. I am not insecure about where I bat," said the skipper.

For Kohli, it is more important as to what kind of leadership legacy he leaves behind rather than chase personal glory.

"Being the captain of the team, it is my job to make sure that the next lot is also ready. A lot of the other people might not look at it that way, but your job as a captain is not only to look after the team right now, but also to prepare a team that you leave behind when you eventually pass it onto someone else," he added.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Chennai, Mar 15: Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni has left the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) training camp following the postponement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amidst the coronavirus scare.

The former India skipper had joined the CSK's camp earlier this month in order to practice for the upcoming IPL season.

CSK's official handle tweeted a video of Dhoni and captioned the post as: "It has become your home sir!" Keep whistling, as #Thala Dhoni bids a short adieu to #AnbuDen".

Thirty-eight-year-old Dhoni has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place for himself in the BCCI's centrally contracted players list.

BCCI had released the list of central contract list of players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

On Friday, BCCI decided to postpone the IPL until April 15 as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, all the IPL franchises met in Mumbai to discuss as to how to go on with the tournament in the future.

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