Out on a limb?

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah gave a cryptic quote on the issue, saying: 8220;He has been dropped, right. That means that he will also get rest and will be ready for the subsequent one-day series in Sri Lanka.8221;

In Yuvraj8217;s case, it isn8217;t out of place to look at a few statistics. He has an ODI average of 50 this year and had scored his highest Test score 8212; a scintillating 169 against Pakistan at Bangalore 8212; just seven months back. But the fitness issue becomes clearer when talking to a national selector. 8220;Fitness was an issue that went against him. He has been having a problem with his throwing arm and his knee is a problem area as well,8221; he said.

Since his comeback after he twisted his knee at nets during the Champions Trophy in October, 2006, Yuvraj has been wearing a brace on his left leg. It was a precaution to protect him from a recurrence of the 8216;cruciate ligament8217; injury he suffered in Mohali two years ago. Later, during the Australia series earlier this year, he missed a game because of another blow to his knee.

Lately, Yuvraj hasn8217;t been seen at his favourite point or cover region, with youngsters such as Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma patrolling these crucial areas of the ground. Even while batting during the just-concluded Asia Cup, he was seen running gingerly between the wickets.

Noteworthy decisions

A smaller surprise than Yuvraj8217;s exclusion was the fact that Rohit Sharma was picked as his replacement. While there8217;s no doubting Rohit8217;s class any more, he has shown a tendency to throw away good starts in all forms of the game. Under the circumstances, one man who would feel unlucky about missing out is probably Suresh Raina, who was India8217;s leading run-getter with 372 runs at 74.40 in the Asia Cup.

Another under-performer, Irfan Pathan, finds himself out as well. Medium pacer S Sreesanth has also been omitted from the squad that includes seven specialist batsmen, four pacers, three spinners and two wicket-keepers.

Openers Inc

The selectors had gone into the meeting with one big task 8212; sort out the opening conundrum. Virender Sehwag, named vice-captain, was always a certainty, but Wasim Jaffer was being chased hard by Gautam Gambhir.

As it turned out, Jaffer was left out, but the squad now includes as many as four candidates to take first strike. Sehwag is expected to miss the first Test and Gambhir, who makes it back at Jaffer8217;s expense, will be playing alongside either Dinesh Karthik or Pathiv Patel, both picked as replacements for one-day and Twenty20 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Veterans Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan expectedly are back in the 16-member squad, along with Munaf Patel and uncapped left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.

Test squad

Anil Kumble c, Virender Sehwag vc, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Munaf Patel, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Kaarthick, Pragyan Ojha and Parthiv Patel

CT probables

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, R P Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Manpreet Singh Gony, Pragyan Ojha, Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Kaarthick, S Badrinath, Mohammed Kaif, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Pankaj Singh, Murali Kartik, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Yusuf Pathan and S Sreesanth.