Mohanty one among seven changes

Later, chairman of the selection committee Kishen Rungta said the new selection committee, which will take over after the Board AGM on September 23-24 in Calcutta, will take a decision about possible replacements for the one-off Test, depending upon the performance of theplayers in the One-dayers. “The Irani Cup performance (October 1-5) will be taken into consideration by the new set of selectors,” Rungta said.

Regarding the omission of Prasad, Rungta said, “The medium pacer’s shoulder still seems to be bothering him.” On Mohanty’s inclusion, he said: “He bowled well on helpful wickets in Kuala Lumpur. Hopefully, the wickets in Zimbabwe will be to his liking.” On the subject of retaining Rahul Dravid, he said, “He is a very good player and we want him for the World Cup. He has been given a fresh lease of life to restore his confidence in One-dayers to a large extent.”

The selectors were also scheduled to name the Rest of India team today to take on Ranji champions Karnataka in the Irani Cup in Bangalore (Oct 1-5). “But we have left it to the new selection committee to do the job,” Rungta said.

The Indian team, which is in Toronto now, would return home in the early hours of September 23 before leaving for Zimbabwe the next day, according to Lele. According tothe Board’s original plans, the team was to proceed straight to Harare after the Sahara Cup matches in Toronto.

Team: Mohammed Azharuddin (captain), Ajay Jadeja (vice-captain), Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, Navjot Sidhu, Rahul Dravid, Nayan Mongia (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Debashish Mohanty and Rahul Sanghvi. Coach: Anshuman Gaekwad.

Itinerary

Sept 26: first one-day international; Sept 27: second one-day international; Sept 30: third one-day international; Oct 2-4: vs Board President’s XI at Harare; Oct 7-11: one-off Test at Harare.