Will selectors gamble on in-form Irfan Pathan?

[1]

With Praveen Kumar out of action for the next five to six weeks with a rib injury, the national selectors will assemble here on Monday to pick his replacement in the 17-man strong Indian squad for the four-Test series against Australia beginning December 26.

Irfan Pathan, the forgotten man of Indian cricket, would probably have been the last man on the selectors’ mind a few weeks ago, but with a whopping 21 wickets in four Ranji Trophy matches, he along with Abhimanyu Mithun and Ashok Dinda will be a prime contender for that last spot.

With three five-wicket hauls for Baroda, Irfan is currently leading the wickets tally in the ongoing Ranji season. He also picked a season best of 7/114 in the recent game against Delhi.

What could also work in his favour is that he knows more about Australian conditions, than the other fringe fast bowlers. He burst on to the scene in Australia in the summer of 2003 with key spells as a rookie 19-year-old.

Four summers later, he was yet again at his defining best Down Under as took six wickets in India’s famous win in Perth. However, since then he has played only two more Tests and was discarded from the limited overs set-up in 2009.

He’s been out of the national team for a while now though, and unless he can swing the ball, his pace at the mid-120’s isn’t going to trouble a lot of international batsmen.

Mithun is the logical choice since he’s part of the Indian team currently playing the five-match one-day series against the West Indies. However, like Dinda, Mithun hasn’t done much this season though, which makes the selectors’ job even tougher.

The Kris Srikkanth-led panel will also name the side for the last two ODIs on Monday. According to a board official, in-form pacer Umesh Yadav will leave for Australia with the first batch of players, so his replacement will for the remaining games will have be named too.

Ashish Nehra could make a comeback for them. Ignored since the World Cup, Nehra announced his intentions with a six-wicket haul against Baroda.