India v West Indies, 2nd Test, Kolkata
Via: ESPN
November 10, 2011
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India have made no changes to their 15-man squad for the second Test against West Indies which starts on November 14 in Kolkata. That means offspinner Harbhajan Singh remains on the sidelines while legspinner Rahul Sharma, who was a controversial selection for the first Test squad, retains his place.
In the first Test in Delhi, India won by the ultimately comfortable margin of five wickets but were sternly tested by West Indies, who took a 95-run first-innings lead. Despite the early scare, India had several things to be satisfied about. In their first match after injury lay-off key batsmen Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar made crucial contributions to the victory. Three other players returning from injury - Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma and Yuvraj Singh - also showed they had no fitness trouble during the Test.
The inexperienced bowling attack also fared well, with left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha taking six wickets in the first innings and Man of the Match R Ashwin grabbing six in the second on his debut. Their impressive performance ensured that Harbhajan, a certain pick in Indian squads for much of the past decade, will have to wait for a chance to make his comeback.
Medium-pacer Praveen Kumar, who was one of India's few bright spots during the abysmal tour of England, also continued to be ignored by the selectors. It was not a fitness problem that kept Praveen out - he played for Uttar Pradesh in their Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra, which began on Thursday - but India probably wanted to experiment with the quicker options of Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron before the big tour of Australia later this year.
Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron
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