Selectors to decide on Big 3 rotation on Friday

HYDERABAD: The national selectors will meet on Friday to pick the team for the remaining four matches of the ongoing one-day cricket series against Australia amidst speculation that some of the senior players could be rested.

There have been talks of the selectors introducing a rotation policy and it remains to be seen whether they start doing it from this series itself.

The five selectors will first watch the third one-dayer before deliberating on the team composition for the four remaining matches to be played in Chandigarh (October 8), Vadodara (October 11), Nagpur (October 14) and Mumbai (October 17). The tour will end with a Twenty20 match in Mumbai on October 20.

The performance of the bowlers would be under the scanner and the selectors may opt to make a few changes in the bowling department, particularly after the indifferent showing in the first two matches.

It would be interesting to see whether the hard-hitting Virender Sehwag finds a place in the squad.

While spinner Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan forced their way into the ODI squad on the basis of their performance in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, Sehwag continued to remain on the sidelines.

Chief Selector Dilip Vengsarkar had said that Sehwag would be considered for the remaining matches since the selectors would follow a rotation policy.

In case Sehwag is accommodated in the team, one of the senior players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly or Rahul Dravid could be rested.