espnstar.com’s Rajarshi Gupta spoke to former India cricketers, who were surprised with Sudeep Tyagi’s omission from the Test squad.

The selectors named a 15 man India squad on Tuesday to take on the visiting Sri Lankans in the first two Tests of a three match series.

Controversial speedster S Sreesanth made a comeback into the Test side after three years but former left arm spinner Maninder Singh was clearly not happy.

“Where has Sreesanth been performing? I would have rather preferred (UP pacer) Sudeep Tyagi. When you are selecting a team, you need to look at the performance of the team and I think this was the time to get him.”

Maninder said three spinners (Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha) made sense in Indian conditions.

“They (the selectors) want all three spinners in the fold and it wasn’t such a bad idea.”

The cricketer turned commentator, however, seemed satisfied with the inclusion of Murali Vijay in the team, saying the Tamil Nadu opener deserved to be in the side.

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“I am very happy for Vijay. He looks good technically and is a good back up for the regular openers. (Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir)

Ishant Sharma, who has been struggling for form over the last few months was also named in the team but Maninder said he was there probably because the captain and the coach backed his potential to the hilt.

“The captain (MS Dhoni) and the coach (Gary Kirtsen) have a lot of confidence in Ishant’s abilities.”

Former Indian bowler Madan Lal also thought Tyagi should have been in the squad but he differed with Maninder as far as Sreesanth’s inclusion was concerned.

“Sreesanth deserved a Test call. He must have learnt his lessons and I am sure he will be an improved bowler once he is back.

However, I think Tyagi could have been in the Test team given his recent run of success. It would have been a great chance for the youngster.”

Lal said he was glad that Ishant was in the Test team as the longer format was best suited for a bowler trying to get his form back.

“Ishant will find it easier to regain his form and confidence back in the Tests. He doesn’t have to bother about runs and the aggressive field set ups will give him opportunities to gun for wickets.”

India and Sri Lanka face off for the first Test in Ahmedabad on November 16 before moving to Kanpur for the second Test from November 24.

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