After humilating test defeat Stuart Binny called up to Indian side
Kolkata: Good news for 31-year-old Stuart Binny, but the sudden decision to summon him as an additional player, the 16th, for the ongoing three-match Test series appears to have 'panic' written all over.
The announcement came around 7.45 pm on Sunday, some 30 hours after India snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, in Galle.
Stuart, son of national selector (South) Roger Binny, one of the heroes of India's 1983 World Cup win, played three Tests in England last summer.
While Stuart didn't pick up a single wicket, he did manage a 78 in the second innings of his debut Test, at Trent Bridge.
On the face of it, then, it's debatable just how much of an option Stuart will provide to captain Virat Kohli.
The thinking, it appears, is to drop one of the two pacers (Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron) who played in Galle and get Stuart in, hoping that he'd deliver as an all-rounder.
To get back to the panic bit, the SOS to Stuart neither reflects well on the team management, which includes director Ravi Shastri, nor the selection committee, headed by Sandeep Patil.
Worse, it signals a lack of confidence where some in the original squad, of 15, are concerned.
Clearly, neither the team management nor the selectors anticipated every scenario. The Shastris and the Patils are professionals and one certainly expects better from both the team management and the selectors.
Incidentally, till late at night, it couldn't be ascertained whether Stuart was specifically asked for by the team management or the selectors reviewed matters on their own.
When The Telegraph contacted one of the five selectors (Patil, Binny, Vikram Rathour, Syed Saba Karim and Rajinder Singh Hans), he said: "Off record or on record, I can't comment on this."
That would please Narayanswami Srinivasan, who appointed this selection committee, probably after making it clear that nothing must ever be revealed to the media.
Till midnight, even the Board's media manager didn't respond to two text messages on the same subject.
Rathour and Saba Karim are currently in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, Murali Vijay, who wasn't fit for the Galle Test, is "improving" every day. There's no update on the state of Shikhar Dhawan's right hand, though.
A right hamstring strain had kept Vijay out of the XI.
The second Test, which will be Kumar Sangakkara's last, begins at the historic P.Sara Oval (Colombo) on Thursday.
The announcement came around 7.45 pm on Sunday, some 30 hours after India snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, in Galle.
Stuart, son of national selector (South) Roger Binny, one of the heroes of India's 1983 World Cup win, played three Tests in England last summer.
While Stuart didn't pick up a single wicket, he did manage a 78 in the second innings of his debut Test, at Trent Bridge.
On the face of it, then, it's debatable just how much of an option Stuart will provide to captain Virat Kohli.
The thinking, it appears, is to drop one of the two pacers (Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron) who played in Galle and get Stuart in, hoping that he'd deliver as an all-rounder.
To get back to the panic bit, the SOS to Stuart neither reflects well on the team management, which includes director Ravi Shastri, nor the selection committee, headed by Sandeep Patil.
Worse, it signals a lack of confidence where some in the original squad, of 15, are concerned.
Clearly, neither the team management nor the selectors anticipated every scenario. The Shastris and the Patils are professionals and one certainly expects better from both the team management and the selectors.
Incidentally, till late at night, it couldn't be ascertained whether Stuart was specifically asked for by the team management or the selectors reviewed matters on their own.
When The Telegraph contacted one of the five selectors (Patil, Binny, Vikram Rathour, Syed Saba Karim and Rajinder Singh Hans), he said: "Off record or on record, I can't comment on this."
That would please Narayanswami Srinivasan, who appointed this selection committee, probably after making it clear that nothing must ever be revealed to the media.
Till midnight, even the Board's media manager didn't respond to two text messages on the same subject.
Rathour and Saba Karim are currently in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, Murali Vijay, who wasn't fit for the Galle Test, is "improving" every day. There's no update on the state of Shikhar Dhawan's right hand, though.
A right hamstring strain had kept Vijay out of the XI.
The second Test, which will be Kumar Sangakkara's last, begins at the historic P.Sara Oval (Colombo) on Thursday.
- Published in Cricket