MUMBAI, February 25: Left-arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju has been recalled after a 20-month hibernation to do duty in the Chennai cricket Test against the Australians commencing from March 6. Raju alongwith Punjab medium-pacer Harvinder Singh and Maharashtra all-rounder Hrishikesh Kanitkar are the new faces in the 14-member squad announced this evening by Jaywant Lele, secretary, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).The five-member national selection committee that met this afternoon with the skipper Mohammed Azharuddin and coach Anshuman Gaekwad in attendance as non-voting members surprisingly omitted Karnataka medium-pacer Venkatesh Prasad from the squad. ``Prasad was not fully fit according to the two selectors -- Kishen Rungta and Shivlal Yadav. They had seen him in a couple of matches recently and felt that he has got a shoulder problem,'' was the explanation given by Ramakant Desai, chairman of the selection committee on Prasad's exclusion.
There were four changes to the squad that lastplayed a Test match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai in December 1997. Haryana all-rounder Ajay Jadeja, who recently underwent a knee surgery in the United States, Prasad, Abey Kuruvilla and left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni have been replaced by Kanitkar, Mohanty, Harvinder and Raju.
The selectors also went by the assurance given by the International Cricket Council (ICC) of clearing Chauhan's modified bowling action, conveyed to them by Lele, who is also the meeting's convener, and included the Madhya Pradesh off-spinner in the team.
The return of Raju, who last played a Test match (at Nottingham, England in 1996) when Mohammad Azharuddin lost his captaincy, interestingly coincided with the latter's reinstatement as captain. Raju has missed 16 Tests in the intervening period.
The BCCI had given the selectors the go-ahead for summoning anyone from the India `A' team now touring Pakistan midway for the Test series paving way for the inclusion of Mohanty who has been impressive in the internationalarena.
``There would be no replacement for Mohanty in the India A team,'' informed Lele.
The team: Mohammed Azaharuddin (capt), Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Nayan Mongia, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, V V S Laxman, Anil Kumble, Rajesh Chauhan, Venkatpathy Raju, Javagal Srinath, Harvinder Singh and Debasish Mohanty.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
