India squad for the 4th test announced, no place for Zaheer Khan

Well, changes were inevitable after India's horrer show in the last couple of home test. The selectors have announced the squad for the last test of the series that India need to win to save the series.
Ravindra Jadeja has forced his way into the test squad on the back of impressive all-round performances in the ongoing Ranji season. He has scored 2 triple hundreds in the season and have taken plenty of wickets as well. In the ongoing match against Bengal, he topscored in Saurashtra's first innings with 70 and has already taken 2 of the 4 Bengal wickets fallen today.
Another player who made his way to the side is Delhi seamer Parwinder Awana. He has taken 2 fifers this Ranji season already and is a well regarded seamer.
To prove that the selectors haven't lost the element of idiocy completely, they replaced one nonperforming asset with another, Harbhajan Singh giving way for Piyush Chawla.
The high profile axing is that of leader of the bowling lineup(I wouldn't call it an attack) Zaheer Khan. Zaheer has been struggling for impact in all the 5 home test played during this season. Besides not picking up many wickets, Zaheer's control was also missing in the last test.
As widely expected, Yuvraj Singh is also dropped. After starting the series with a bright but chancy 73, Yuvraj's old inconsistencies returned in the next couple of tests and his bowling too didn't make any impact. Looks like Yuvraj has eventually missed the bus to become a good test cricketer for India.
Despite placing his captaincy future in the selector's hand, Mahendra Singh Dhoni stays on as captain, and Sachin Tendulkar hasn't taken any call on his playing future and is named in the squad.

Khan being dropped is a biggy despite his performance. With almost all the reserves injured it doesn't leave a lot to pick from.is he still being hampered by injury or is there an attitude issue?
So changes to the side likely to be jadeja in for yuvraj and khan out for the custard pie express?

Can't help but think it will take more than that to reinvigorate Indi in this series.

Jadeja has now taken 4 wickets on top of a first innings 70 in Saurashtra's Ranji match against Bengal.
Ajinkya Rahane might get to bat today against Mumbai, Punjab have already scored more than 560 there. Could be a toss up between the 2 for that number 6 position. With the bowling being weak and all, I'd be tempted to put Jadeja in there, Rahane's chance will surely come in the near future....... Ashok Dinda might get to play ahead of Awana as he has been the pace reserve for some time now. But then Dinda's form in the Ranji trophy hasn't been great at all. and Pankaj Singh will have to continue to wonder as to what more can he do to get a national call up?

Unlike Ashwin and Ojha, Jadeja bowls a bit quicker through the air. Monty Panesar who does the same has had lots of success.

My XI:

Sehwag, Rahane, Pujara, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Kohli, Dhoni, Ashwin, Awana, Dinda, Ojha

I see this as a bit of an interim XI: when Tendulkar goes, Kohli moves back to 5, and Jadeja gets his chance at 6.

I want Gambhir to go down the order, as he can offer some experience to the middle as well as allow Rahane to freshen up the opening pair.

I'm reluctant to play both Dinda and Awana, but its not like Ishant's likely to do much better.

Shelsey the new selection committe has put an end to the interesting to say the least practice of looking at Rahane as an opener in the making.
It was long ago that he opened for Mumbai in domestic cricket. He scored most of his runs at 3 for Mumbai. When he opened in the West Indies for the A team he struggled.
Gambhir on the other hand has opened for most of his playing life and when he batted elsewhere it was at 3 for the India ODI side.
Jadeja, all be it in domestic cricket, is going through quite a purple patch with bat and has been doing very well with the ball. He has been the highest run getter this Ranji season and is among the top 5 wicket takers as well.
So for me he has to play. Jadeja for Yuvraj, Dinda for Sharma and Awana for Zaheer. But perhaps they'll stick with Ishant and one of Dinda or Awana would play. On recent form I'd like that to be Awana.

Surely Jadeja will play ? Adds a serious bowling option and hardly weakens the batting ...
Guess that means Rahane can only play if they elect to give Kohli a break to recover his form away from the pressure of the Tests. Which I don't think they would be doing yet.
One of the alternative pace men presumably ...don't know enough to make a choice.

Dropping Zaheer Khan is a big call, but the right one IMO. He simply didn't look fit enough in this Test and with such a quick turnaround I don't think things would be any better in the last Test.

Dropping Yuvraj was the only sensible decision too. He made runs in the first Test but really has looked all at sea since, and if he's not going to bowl (I think he should have bowled more here certainly) that's just not good enough.

Harbajan being dropped is slightly odd (in that I don't get why they didn't drop him before this Test in that case), and not sure Mr Average Chawla would do much better if called upon. Don't think he'll play anyway.

I think Rahane could consider him unlikely if Jadeja leap-frogs him straight into the team, but certainly Jadeja's Ranji Trophy form has been outstanding this season, so it would scarecely be undeserved if he did get the nod. He's also an excellent fielder of course. I do think Rahane deserves a chance at some stage, maybe when Tendulkar finally goes?

I think Sharma did just about enough here to keep his spot: he bowled pretty well without much reward (though he didn't help himself with that awful drop). I expect India will keep faith with Ashwin for the moment, not least for his batting. Ohja of course stays in, and I don't think three spinners works, so go with Dinda? I've never seen much to excite me in him, but I know Ganguly rates him so maybe I'm harsh...

Dada does rate Dinda a lot. But his recent Ranji form hasn't been all that great. Not that it was bad, in fact he opened the season with a 7 wicket performance against South Zone in a Duleep trophy match, but he hasn't been very consistent since then.
Jadeja's inclusion would mean that India would have a propper 3rd spinner. He has been taking wickets in the Ranji this year on top of all those runs. Agree with MFC on Rahane, but if Jadeja plays ahead of him it would be a deserved for the latter and a bit of tough luck for Rahane.
Rahane should be the front runner to take a middle order position when Sachin eventually would call it a day. The way things are going, that could be rather soon.

Shelsey93 wrote:My XI:

Sehwag, Rahane, Pujara, Gambhir, Tendulkar, Kohli, Dhoni, Ashwin, Awana, Dinda, Ojha

I see this as a bit of an interim XI: when Tendulkar goes, Kohli moves back to 5, and Jadeja gets his chance at 6.

I want Gambhir to go down the order, as he can offer some experience to the middle as well as allow Rahane to freshen up the opening pair.

I'm reluctant to play both Dinda and Awana, but its not like Ishant's likely to do much better.

Outside the subcontinent, Sehwag should of course move down the order.

Quite surprised to see that RP Singh hasn't been called up!

Would have been a great option for the selectors had he not been injured!. And anyways the Selectors did select Piyush Chawla!.

The sheer number of injured seamers sums up why the dropping of Khan, for all his sh1teness, is a big deal.