Tag INDinSL2012

India's national chief selectors were on a rampage during a selection meeting, and dropped some big names from the squad for Sri Lankan tour later this month. A serious discussion between the selectors and India's coach Duncan Fletcher is said to have influenced the big decisions..

Players including the Pathan brothers Irfan and Yusuf and out-of-for Ravindra Jadeja were dropped from the 15-man squad and India's chief selector Srikkanth spoke to reporters about the moves. He was quoted saying: "One good thing is that we had Indian cricket team coach Duncan Fletcher with us. We had a lot of discussions about the pros and cons, about what happened, what did not happen, what's true and what's not true.

"It was a very healthy discussion with Duncan Fletcher. We wanted to sort out everything and make sure this season starts with a bang," he explained.

The press conference which brought out all these topics however, failed to bring to light the controversy surrounding the introduction of the rotation policy, which was introduced in India's series against Australia last season. The policy had brought out mixed reactions from the team, especially between India's captain MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Dhoni wasn't present for the meeting and reports suggest that he is in the US at the moment.

Srikkanth then showed confidence in the current selection and said that he needed the best possible team to begin the season and added that he and his team had selected the ones they thought would bring the new season in with convincing victories.

"We are looking forward to this particular season. Being the first tour of the season, we really wanted the best possible team. Of course, Sachin Tendulkar is not available. He's starting off from the New Zealand series. So, we have selected the best available team based on the performance," said Srikkanth.

"I think it is a very good side. Don't forget, we have a strong batting line up and good bowlers...(like) Zaheer Khan and everybody. We (selectors) are confident of doing very well in Sri Lanka. Of course, we also have T20 World Cup coming (between September 18 and October 7 in Sri Lanka) up. We also have New Zealand coming for a series (sandwiched between the two visits to Lanka) and then England coming (end of year). We have a long season ahead and by God's grace, we will come back to winning ways," he was quoted adding.

The team will now head to Sri Lanka where they play a 5-ODI series anyone T20, starting from the 21st of July. Looking at the confidence the selectors have shown and the radical changes that have been made, it should be interesting to see how the team fares against the in-form Lankans, that too in Sri Lanka.