Injury issues not new: Srikkanth

The BCCI’s selection committee chief Krishnamachari Srikkanth on Friday said that despite battling injury issues for the past one and a half years, they have been able to find replacements who have done well to ensure India’s dominance in world cricket.

“Injury issues have been there for the last one and half years but don’t forget we have been able to find good replacements (for those injured) and India have been doing very well,” Srikkanth told reporters after the selection committee meeting to pick the Test squad for the West Indies tour next month.

Sachin Tendulkar had requested to allow him to skip the full tour to spend time with his family and Srikkanth defended the champion batsman on his decision.

“Tendulkar deserved to take rest and then Yuvraj Singh was not well with some illness, so we have picked the best available squad. We have analysed every problem, the injuries to the players and took a decision and that is why the meeting took very long,” said the former Test opener.

“We got very good input from the coach (Duncan Fletcher) and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was also present. So I am really happy to have picked the squad. I think we will do well in the ODI and Test series,” he said.

The selection panel on Friday named a depleted squad for next month’s Test series after an injured Gautam Gambhir and an ill Yuvraj Singh were left out of the 16-member squad, which has Abhinav Mukund as the lone new face.

Tendulkar, who was not part of the ODI team, has opted out of the Test series as well, leaving India without the services of five frontline players.

Opener Virender Sehwag and pacer Ashish Nehra are already out injured.

Suresh Raina was named captain of the ODI team in the absence of Gambhir, who aggravated a shoulder injury while playing in the IPL.

The Test team will be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni who had earlier opted out of the ODI series