IPL showing pays off as Ojha, Yusuf get ODI nod

The national selectors seem to have paid some heed to Delhi Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag's observation that IPL performances should be taken into account for selection into the Indian team. Keeping the thrust on youth and the aim to build a team for the 2011 World Cup, on Friday, the five wise men decided to pick Team Jaipur all-rounder Yusuf Pathan and Team Hyderabad left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in the 15-member ODI squad for next month's tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan. The 25-year-old Pathan scored 334 runs at an average of 27.83 with three fifties in the league stage of the IPL. The elder brother of Indian pace bowler Irfan Pathan, Yusuf has hit the fastest half-century of the tournament, off 21 balls against Team Hyderabad, besides smashing 17 sixes, the maximum by anybody in Team Jaipur's array of big-hitters. The Baroda youngster, who also took five wickets with his off-spin, played in the T20 final against Pakistan last September. Pathan's slot was created after Sachin Tendulkar ruled himself out of the twin tours due to a groin injury. Though Team Hyderabad performed disastrously, Ojha emerged with a decent performance. He took 11 wickets at 25.81, and his best figures were 2 for 18. The 21-year-old Ojha's passage was made easier because experienced left-arm spinner Murali Kartik made himself unavailable due to injury. Team Chennai's Suresh Raina was also rewarded for his good showing in the IPL with a berth in the squad. Raina, 21, who last played a ODI in January, 2007, edged Team Chennai teammate Subramaniam Badrinath, Delhi's Shikhar Dhawan and Hyderabad's Venugopal Rao. The question mark over the ODI careers of both former captains Dravid and Ganguly, who had earlier been dropped for the previous tri-series won by the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side in Australia for the first time ever, continued, as both were left out of the ODI scheme. The selectors made five changes in the team that played the tri-series in Australia in March. Along with Tendulkar, who missed two home Tests against South Africa and the first seven IPL games for Mumbai Indians, banned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, fast bowler Munaf Patel, wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and middle-order batsman Manoj Tiwary failed to make it. Incidentally, Harbhajan, banned by the BCCI for five ODIs for slapping Sreesanth, was left out of the Asia Cup squad though he would have served out his ban after India's first two ties in Pakistan