India A squad

[Salamuddin]

This is the India A squad to play against Sri Lanka A.

Team: S S Das (c), Hemang Badani (v-c), Gautam Gambhir, S Sriram, Rohan Gavaskar, Mohammad Kaif, Murali Kartik, Ajay Ratra (wk), L Balaji, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel, Romesh Powar, A T Rayudu, Amit Mishra

A good showing by Kartik or Mishra could pitchfork them into the national squad when it returns from Australia -- particularly as Kumble and harbhajan are not gonna cover themselves in glory
down under.

Overall a fairly decent selection. Most of the guys are pretty young.

 

[Richard]

Why no Sarandeep Singh? Second-best fingerspinner in the country.

 

[Salamuddin]

Ramesh Powar is IMO a better spinner that Sarandeep.

However, I've heard Sarandeep's bowling has improved over the off season so he may get a look in at some stage.

 

[Richard]

Me, I've only seen Powar once, so I can say in all essence nothing about him. Sarandeep, however, has always been, for me, superb with loop and drift and has always turned the ball as much as a fingerspinner can. His only problem has been accuracy and even that's only been at times. If this is even better now than before, surely it's only a matter of time before he overtakes Harbhajan, whether he can bowl the doosra or not.