November 13 Wednesday 2002
Kumble dropped for two one-dayers

RAJKOT: India dropped leg-spinner Anil Kumble on Tuesday from the squad for the next two One-day Internationals of their seven-match series against the West Indies. The visitors lead 2-1 after three games.

Kumble, 32, is India's most successful one-day bowler with 300 wickets in 235 matches but took only one wicket in the first two matches of the series before being left out by captain Sourav Ganguly for the third.

He has 349 Test scalps and is one of only three bowlers in history, along with Pakistan pacemen Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, to claim 300 wickets in both forms of the game.

India also left out medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar, who had scored 95 in the first match in Jamshedpur after being promoted to number three but has been expensive with the ball. Seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji and left-arm spinner Murli Kartik were called up along with Parthiv Patel as back-up wicket-keeper.

The remaining games are scheduled for Ahmedabad (November 15), Baroda (November 18), Jodhpur (November 21) and Vijayawada (November 24).

Squad: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Vangipurappu Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Ashish Nehra, Jaiprakash Yadav, Sanjay Bangar, Murli Kartik, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Parthiv Patel.