Melbourne ODI: Rishi Dhawan picked before seeing pitch?

Melbourne: The inclusion of two debutants - medium pacer Rishi Dhawan and Gurkeerat Singh Mann - instead of R Ashwin raised a few eyebrows yesterday.



With only a day in between games, India landed in Melbourne only the evening before the match. It is learnt that no member of the team went to inspect the pitch. Apparently,

Dhawan's selection was decided before the team entered the ground. It is baffling that such a chance was taken even before examining the pitch.

Playing two debutants in a crunch match was always going to be risky but MS Dhoni felt he had almost no choice but to drop Ashwin: "We couldn't drop Jadeja and play Gurkeerat and Rishi because that makes the batting slightly difficult. The only slot we can look at is most likely Ashwin."