The 44-year-old Leander Paes made a return to India’s Davis Cup fold. The national selectors named him in the Indian team that will take on China in the Asia-Oceania Group 1 second round tie in Tianjin on April 6-7.
It’s a major turn-around for Paes who suffered a public humiliation when he was dropped from the squad for the corresponding tie against Uzbekistan in Bangalore last year. Apparently, the selection committee headed by chairman SP Misra overruled “reservations” expressed by Rohan Bopanna, with whom Paes’ relationship is estranged, to put it mildly. “How can a player decide whom he will play with? It can’t be a personal decision,” an AITA source said.
The source said that Bopanna had requested to be omitted for the tie if the selectors wanted to bring in Paes, but it didn’t go down well with the AITA or the selectors, who noted that the former also receives grants from the government as part of the TOP Scheme. “The idea is to field the best team, and you have to play. You can’t make excuses like personal reasons for not being available,” he added.
Captain Mahesh Bhupathi refused to comment beyond the customary “it’s a full strength team, will give us a great chance.” As did Paes himself. “It’s always an honour to play for India. I respect Rohan’s talent and am looking forward to playing with him. I am looking forward to wearing the Blue (Indian jersey) again,” Paes said.
The selectors, however, seemed to have learnt their lessons from past mistakes and covered all their bases. India will be playing for the first time (they had a bye in the first round this year) under the new rules - ties will be played over two days instead of three and each rubber will be best of three, instead of five. And teams can nominate five players, instead of four. Bhupathi technically has the freedom to pick the final five of his choice, but in reality he has a small leeway in doubles.
Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal and Rohan Bopanna are the other four members of the team which has Divij Sharan as reserve.
