ADELAIDE, (Reuters) – India are considering playing two spinners in the fourth and final test against Australia and have brought leftarmer Pragyan Ojha into the squad for the match, stand-in captain Virender Sehwag said yesterday.
Right-arm off spinner Ravi Ashwin also returns to the 12-man squad after missing the third test in Perth, where the tourists were thrashed by an innings and 37 runs on a lively wicket to go 3-0 down in the series.
“We’ll decide in the morning,” Sehwag told a news conference on the eve of the match.
“It depends on the wicket, if we think it’s dry enough and there’s help for spinners, we will definitely go with two spinners.”
The wicket looked to have little green on it yesterday and with temperatures reaching the mid 30s Celcius in Adelaide is likely to dry out further before play commences today.
Sehwag, leading the side in place of banned Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said medium pace bowler R Vinay Kumar, a debutant in the third test at Perth who took one wicket for 73 runs, had been dropped.
Dhoni was banned for the match by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after his team’s failure to maintain an acceptable over rate at the WACA.
Wriddhiman Saha, who played just one test two years ago, is also included in the squad and almost certain to replace his
skipper behind the stumps as the tourists look to restore some pride after losing seven successive overseas tests.
Ojha is the most experienced spinner in the touring squad with 14 tests under his belt but moved down in the pecking order after the lanky Ashwin took nine wickets in his first test against West Indies in New Delhi earlier this year.
Ashwin also scored a century in Mumbai against West Indies and was named Man of the Series but has struggled on the pacey Australian wickets, taking four wickets at a cost of nearly 300 runs in the first two tests.
Off spinner Harbhajan Singh, once the nemesis of Australian batsmen, was omitted from the touring squad after a run of poor
form.
Squad – Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, Wriddhiman Saha, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Ravi Ashwin, Umesh Yadav.
