India's Tour of England: Return of the Big Guns

The tour against West Indies has so far been a piece of cake for the Indian side. This is an excellent sign for Indian cricket as the team was full of young and inexperienced players and yet performed. The players have stood up to the decision of the selectors and have given them a tough call for the England tour. However it was known that the England tour will not be this easy and considering the pitch and atmosphere in England, selectors have pooled in a team with experience of senior players.

The selectors have decided to roll out the Big Guns for the England Tour

Star players like Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan are supposed to return to the side and resume their services. Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth who were dropped for the West Indies tour because of injury problems have been brought back to the side. Bengal wicket keeper Wriddhiman Saha got the nod ahead of Parthiv Patel as the second choice wicketkeeper, while Virat Kohli and opener Murali Vijay were dropped from the squad announced by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a meeting of the selection committee at Mumbai. Abhinav Mukund is also retained but Abhimanyu Mithun did not receive the favour of the selectors. Opener VirenderSehwag will miss the first test but will be joining the team henceforth. The side will be captained by the man who changed the fate of India, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Gautam Gambhir would be the vice-captain for the side.

Keeping the pitch of England, selectors have gone with more number of pacers than spinners with five pacers and two spinners. Sachin Tendulkar exclusively said that the tour is going to be tough but they expect to emerge as winners. Sachin believes that they have a good competitive squad which can give a tough fight to the English squad. The tour is a much awaited one for the fans and the players. All expect that Team India will weave their magic once more and retain their fame as the best side in the world.

Squad: MS Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Abhinav Mukund, Wriddhiman Saha, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar