Did India err in dropping Pragyan Ojha?

http://gallery.bizhat.com/data/6330/...ha-300x224.jpg

No one could believe what they were seeing when the team sheets were given out. Pragyan Ojha, with 20 wickets in the recently-concluded England series, was not there and it was Ravindra Jadeja who was playing ahead of the Hyderabad left-arm spinner.

And if that was not enough, UP medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was picked as Ishant Sharma's back-up as Ajinkya Rahane was left to carry the drinks once again.

The second pacer on the Chepauk track, which was termed by Shane Warne on Twitter as "a fifth-day pitch" even before the first ball was bowled, was clearly a luxury.

And when Dhoni brought on Harbhajan Singh as early as the fifth over of the day, it was quite clear that even the skipper doesn't have too much faith in his pacer.

Bhuvi and Ishant bowled 22 overs in the day, giving away 94 runs. The moment the two were brought on, the Aussies felt comfortable. Debutant Moises Henriques, though, wasn't too harsh on the Indian pacers, even though he had it pretty easy against them.

"They were bowling to two well-set batsmen. I guess that's why they didn't have much of an impact," Henriques said.

The Aussie felt that India's decision to play off-spinners had a lot to do with the four left-handers in the visitors' batting line-up. "The offies had a better chance and Ashwin, bowling the right areas, showed that," he said.

When Ashwin was asked whether he lacked support at the other end, the Chennai boy went on the defensive. "I thought Jadeja bowled well on this track and stuck to a line and length.

As for me, everything was coming out very well, I had one of those days," he said, not going into how Harbhajan bowled.

Given the composition of the Australian batting lineup, the Indians were probably forced to play the two offies, but still it didn't justify Ojha's omission from the playing XI.

When Ashwin was made to face the query, the tall offie was clearly ill at ease. "I wish I could answer that. I would have answered that if I knew what the reason is. But the fact that they had a lot of left-handers, we had to play two off-spinners."

He added that Jadeja was picked to "balance the attack". "We needed a left-armer and that's where Jadeja came in...If I was the captain, I, too, probably would have done that."

Ashwin felt that Jadeja's batting abilities too might have gone in his favour. But it's common knowledge that the Saurashtra man is suspect against pace and it's to be seen whether Dhoni can expose him at No. 6 against the likes of Peter Siddle, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc.


More stills


Keywords:Pragyan Ojha,Ravindra Jadeja , left-arm spinner,UP medium-pacer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar , Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane,Saurashtra man , Dhoni,Peter Siddle, James Pattinson ,cricket news,sports news, Mitchell Starc.