18 June,2009 09:49 AM IST | | Debasish Datta
What's common between Murali Vijay, S Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik? They all hail from chairman of selectors K Srikkanth's state
The Indian team has faced a lot of ridicule after their inability to cope with short-pitched bowling in their games against West Indies and England in the World Twenty 20.
To avoid this problem, the selectors opted for specialists for the four-match one day series in the Caribbean starting June 26.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni left for London with coach Gary Kirsten yesterday morning to attend a meeting with selectors (chairman) K Srikkanth and Raja Venkat. The other three selectors u00e2u0080u0093 Yashpal Sharma, Narendra Hirwani and Surendra Bhave u00e2u0080u0093 were hooked up through teleconference from Mumbai.
Rohit Sharma did the job as an opener but then, the selectors reminded themselves that it was only a stop-gap arrangement. Hence, Murali Vijay was selected to strengthen the opening position.
S Badrinath was picked to beef up the middle-order. However, it cannot be ignored that both batsmen belong to Tamil Nadu from where Srikkanth and secretary N Srinivasan hail from. The duo also plays for Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
M Vijay, who faced Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson in the Test series, should be suited to face the West Indies pacers. Dinesh Karthik (16th man) is the back-up wicketkeeper and also hails from Tamil Nadu.
