MUMBAI: For the first time in more than a decade Yuvraj Singh will be not be part of an Indian one-day international squad in a marquee tournament. The attacking left-hander, who was the man of the tournament in the 2011 World Cup, has been left out of the 15-member squad for the ICC Champions Trophy that will be played in England from June 5.
Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir's heroic 97 in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka has also been overlooked.
The selectors, who appear to have taken out their brooms with an eye on the future, have done away with Yuvraj and Gambhir on Saturday after wielding the axe on Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan while picking the preliminary squad of 30 last month.
What's unthinkable is that the new outfit has only four members - MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin - from the one that won India the 2011 World Cup.
The Sandeep Patil-headed five member committee has recalled Tamil Nadu batsmen Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay to the squad. They have also included the in-form opener Shikhar Dhawan. While Karthik's selection was on the cards following his impressive show in the ongoing T20 league (331 runs) and domestic season (577 runs at 64.11), Vijay's inclusion has raised quite a few eyebrows.
The opener did have a decent outing in the NKP Challenger Trophy but that was in October last year and his current form, or the lack of it, has forced Chennai Super Kings to bench him for the last three games. It must be said though that Vijay had shown tremendous application in the Test series against Australia and India could do with a grafter in a batting department full of stroke players.
Yuvraj and Gambhir have been grappling with indifferent form of late. The former has scored 160-runs in eight ODI innings after bravely staving off germ cell cancer and the latter has tallied 249 runs in his last 10 ODI innings.
The writing may have been on the wall for Gambhir, but Yuvraj's non-inclusion deprives the batting order of much-needed experience in the middle.
Not only form, Yuvraj's waning fitness levels too may have been factored in. He has missed three matches for Pune Warrriors India due to a bad back.
The big stage, however, has always brought out the best in Yuvraj and the selectors could have perhaps given him another opportunity, to fail or succeed, before deciding his fate. At 31, Yuvraj still has plenty of years left in him to barge his way back into the team.
The selectors have also sprung a surprise by picking a third spinner in Amit Mishra. The leg-spinner is faring well for his side Sunrisers Hyderabad but for some reason he doesn't enjoy skipper Dhoni's backing. A good example of that was the ODI series against England earlier this year where the Haryana bowler was not given a single game.
Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav have returned to the fold after long injury lay-offs, while Vinay Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been rewarded for their consistency.
Strangely, the BCCI has not named a vice-captain for the tournament in its official release. It's not clear if they have retained Virat Kohli for the post but appointing a vice-captain for foreign tours is a must according to the BCCI constitution.
Besides naming the Champions Trophy squad, the selectors have also named a provisional 21-member squad for the tri series in the West Indies that will be played after the tournament in England. Interestingly, Gambhir's name figures in this list while Yuvraj has missed out there too.
India: Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar.
Additional players in provisional squad: Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ambati Rayudu, Rahul Sharma, Gautam Gambhir.
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