CHENNAI, Jan 5: Struggling paceman Ishant Sharma was on Tuesday recalled to India’s 16-member Test squad for the two-match series against Bangladesh starting from January 17 in Chittagong.
Ishant, the gangling Delhi speedster who has been struggling to find his rhythm of late, gets another opportunity to prove his worth with the national selectors reposing faith in him.
Tamil Nadu middle-order batsman S Badrinath, who featured in India’s squad which played the last Test against Sri Lanka at home, has been dropped from the team announced by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a brief meeting of the selection committee.
The selectors barely took 15 minutes to finalise the squad, to be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, which expectedly had no major surprises.
Sachin Tendulkar, who was rested from the ongoing ODI tri-series, will return to action for the two Tests to be held in Chittagong (January 17 to 21) and Mirpur (January 24 to 28).
Uttar Pradesh paceman Sudeep Tyagi also made his way into the team which has four specialist pacers with Zaheer Khan being the spearhead.
As expected, veterans like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, regarded as Test specialists, found a place in the side.
Tamil Nadu opener Murali Vijay has also been included as a reserve opener with Virender Sehwag and Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir being the regulars.
The middle-order has the ever-reliable Dravid, Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and skipper Dhoni, making it a solid line-up.
Harbhajan Singh, the gutsy off-spinner, will shoulder the spin bowling responsibility along with leg-spinner Amit Mishra and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.
Dinesh Karthik has been included as the second wicketkeeper.
The Squad: MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, Sudeep Tyagi. (PTI)
