Ravindra Jadeja back for Tests, Aravind in for ODIs

Saurashtra all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja rode an early season haul of 24 wickets in two Ranji Trophy games back into India colours here on Monday, picked for the first two Tests of the Friendship Series against South Africa in place of 103-Test veteran Harbhajan Singh.

The 26-year-old left-arm spinner, ignored for the Tests against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has also hit two half-centuries was preferred ahead of the off-colour Harbhajan, who could only manage four wickets from the one Test each he played against Bangladesh and the Lankans.

Meeting here on the day, the selection committee named a squad for the remaining two one-dayers of the five-game series against the Proteas — which the Indians trail 1-2 — and inducted Kartanaka left-arm quick Sreenath Aravind for Umesh Yadav, who was expensive in the first two matches and sat out Sunday’s third game in Rajkot.

Premier spinner R. Ashwin was named in the Test squad despite a side strain picked up in the first ODI against South Africa in Kanpur earlier this month. He however, will sit out the final two one-dayers, while injured pace spearhead Ishant Sharma was also named in the Test squad even though he is ineligible for the first match after being suspended for misconduct against Sri Lanka. India play South Africa in the first of four Test matches at Mohali from November 5. The teams were announced by cricket control board secretary Anurag Thakur after the Sandeep Patil-led selection panel met here on the day. Returning to the Test side was wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhimaan Saha, who missed the decisive third and final game against Sri Lanka because of injury.

Patil later said that there were concerns over the team performance after India went down 0-2 in the T20s. “Two selectors who were travelling with the team had a word with the team management and captain. We had a detailed discussion with the captain. Nobody is happy that we lost a game that we should have won. But we still back the team which we have chosen,” he was quoted as saying by a wire agency.

“We still back the ideas and the management and the support staff. We want them to do well. The areas that we wanted to be looked into have been discussed, about which the team management and captain will give a good thought to it,” he added. “(Our aim) is to give the captain the team that not only he wants but the team which selectors feel that will do well. The form of a particular player, looking at the slot that he had, looking at the opposition and like I said earlier, we are still on the same page. Whether it’s captain, team management, coach all selectors feel that they have selected the best. Final selection of 11 players has been left to them. We were worried about a few things and we hope they will be sorted out in future,” he added.