Bangalore, March 28: Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad continue to be ignored by the national cricket selectors. Announcing the Indian team for the triangular series involving India, Zimbabwe and Australia, they claimed that Mohanty seemed to be better than Prasad ``at the moment'' and ``Dravid's scoring rate in one-dayers was slow.''Announcing the team at the conclusion of the third Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday, Board of Control for Cricket in India Secretary Jaywant Yeshwant Lele said that a 14-member team was selected for all the four matches. But ``changes would be made as and when required''.
Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble and Rahul Sanghvi have been included in place of Harvinder Singh, Sairaj Bahutule and Nilesh Kulkarni respectively.
Saurav Ganguly has been omitted from the list because of his suspension for one match, said Lele. He also said that the names of Venkatesh Prasad, Abey Kuruvilla, Nilesh Kulkarni were also discussed at the Board meeting but Mohanty and Agarkar gotthe nod.
Citing the reason for Prasad's omission, Kishen Rungta, acting chairman of the selection committee, said that after Prasad suffered an injury in Sri Lanka, he continued to play. Even after he got treated in Australia, his performance was not ``up to the mark''. He played the Ranji league, the Wills Trophy and represented India `A' but his performance has not improved.
Taking all this into consideration, we think that Mohanty is a better choice at the moment,'' he added.
``We are trying to build a team for the World Cup, and trying to bring in more youngsters and all-rounders,'' said Rungta. He said that Sanghvi was considered since he was a better spinner than Kulkarni.
Regarding Rahul Dravid he said ``his rate of scoring in one-dayers has to be improved and once we find that he is doing it, we shall consider him,'' said Rungta. He, however, failed to disclose when he would be given an opportunity to show his improvement.
When asked about Agarkar's inclusion, Rungta said they wanted to tryhim in this Test but they thought of trying him out in the one-dayer first.
While lauding Kumble, Rungta said that he (Kumble) had made a good comeback and done very well and hoped that he would continue to do well.
THE TEAM
* Mohammed Azharuddin (Captain)
* Sachin Tendulkar
* Navjot Singh Sidhu
* Vinod Kambli
* Ajay Jadeja
* Hrishikesh Kanitkar
* Robin Singh
* Ajit Agarkar
* Nayan Mongia
* Javagal Srinath
* Anil Kumble
* VVS Laxman
* Debashish Mohanty
* Rahul Sanghvi
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
