Virender Sehwag

Mumbai: The senior national selectors are set to recall Virender Sehwag and Munaf Patel for the first two ODIs, at least, against Sri Lanka.

Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar and his colleagues (Venkatapathi Raju, Bhupinder Singh, Sanjay Jagdale and Ranjib Biswal) will be meeting here on Saturday, Day II of the Ranji final.

The first ODI is in Calcutta on February 8, while Rajkot hosts the second, three days later. The World Cup squad of 15 is going to be chosen on February 12.

Munaf Patel

Sehwag, it may be recalled, was dropped for the just-ended four ODIs versus the West Indies. Munaf wasn’t available for the first two matches of the same series and not considered thereafter. He’d been present in Vadodara, though.

“The selectors, as of now (Thursday), wish to see whether Sehwag has learnt anything by being dropped on returning from South Africa... If fit, Munaf can be an asset in the World Cup, but he has to first convince the selectors that he’s one hundred per cent okay,” a top source told The Telegraph.

Munaf made himself available for the last Test (Cape Town) in South Africa despite harbouring a fear that his left ankle could again get injured. That hurt Team India and, eventually, we lost there and couldn’t even return home with a 1-1 scoreline.

In any case, owing to the injury, Munaf had been a passenger for much of the tour.

“Munaf bowled at nets in Vadodara (before the final ODI against the West Indies), but one can’t judge anything on that basis... He’d looked perfectly fine at nets in Cape Town as well... Obviously, he had a problem in the mind and if that hasn’t been sorted out, he won’t be considered for the World Cup,” the source added.

Many are still quite upset with Munaf, but are looking at the larger picture.

At the moment, it’s not clear who will be dropped/rested to make way (as is expected) for Sehwag and Munaf. Gautam Gambhir and Sreesanth are the ones who may not travel to Calcutta and Rajkot.

The last two ODIs are going to be held in Goa and Vizag.