 South Africa lost the services of their regular captain, Graeme Smith for
the ODI series against India due to the finger injury he had sustained at the
start of the second Test. He had managed to play the game after it was found that
even Mark Boucher would miss the second game due to his back spasms.
Smith will now be replaced by Hashim Amla in the side. Amla was in a rich vein
of form during the Tests, but had not been the part of the ODI side before the
start of this series. His selection became imperative when it was very evident
that the Indian bowlers were not able to get him out. In the three innings he
batted, he scored almost 500 runs and was dismissed only once in the entire
series. Hence, it was a surprise that he had earlier not been selected.
Also, Smith's absence means that Kallis will now lead the side. Kallis has
earlier led South Africa in a couple of tests and ten ODIs, but hasn't
been too successful. In fact, in a series against India in Ireland, he had led
them to a win in the first ODI, but lost the second and the third games to lose
the series.
Smith is not the only batsman injured for South Africa. As mentioned above,
Mark Boucher is also struggling with his bad back, and will need some
rest before the start of the ODIs. However, the South African management has
decided not to send in a replacement for him as they think that he should be
fit by the time of the ODIs.
India has its own set of injury issues. For starters, Zaheer Khan has
been ruled out of the series because of his foot injury. He sustained the injury
during the second Test match and could not bowl on the fifth and the final day
of the second Test match. This means that India will be without the services
of their premier fast bowler, who will be replaced by Sreesanth for this series.
Apart from him, Gambhir will not be a part of the squad either. He had hurt
his groin during the second test match as well, and that had meant that he too
had not fielded for the entire duration of the second innings. This will mean
that Virender Sehwag and Tendulkar will open the innings, and the younger guys
like Yusuf Pathan will bat down the order. Yuvraj Singh is already
out of the series.
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