Mahesh Bhupathi surprised at Leander Paesā€™ exclusion for David Cup tie in Kolkata

Mahesh Bhupathi surprised at Leander Paesā€™ exclusion for David Cup tie in Kolkata

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Mahesh Bhupathi has stated that Leander Paes should have been in the team for the Davis Cup tie against Italy due to his expertise on grass-court in Kolkata. Bhupathi has slammed for the archial selection process and said that the captain should be consulted during the selection meetings.

Italy, on paper, is much stronger than the hosts in every department, having players like Marco Cecchinato, Andreas Seppi and Matteo Berrettini and Simone Bolleli. On the other hand, India had left with a less experienced team due to the absence of Leander Paes and their only hopes lies on Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan. That irked the non-playing captain of the team, Mahesh Bhupathi, who argued that Paes should have been there in the team.

ā€œHonestly, if I were consulted in selection, Iā€™d have said Leander definitely has to be in the mix when itā€™s a grass-court tie in Kolkata, but Iā€™m never consulted. He has the passion when it comes to Davis Cupā€¦ nobody has witnessed how he raises his level as closely as I haveā€¦ if anyone argues Leanderā€™s ability in Davis Cup, heā€™s never going to win against me. He still has the ability. If I knew what goes on behind the scenes, it would have been a totally different story,ā€ Bhupathi told ToI.

ā€œFirstly, the AITA needs to find a way to involve whoever is the captain in the selection process. You canā€™t have the selectors sitting behind closed doors and then handing over a set of players to the captain and saying ā€˜go winā€™ on a particular surface where they donā€™t even know whether half the players are left-handed or right-handed. This process has to be changed because everybody is trying to win the tieā€¦ things have to evolve if we are to take the next step.ā€

While rumours have that Rohan Bopanna never wanted to partner Paes, the former Indian player rubbished the idea and stated that the duo played the China tie and never had any sort of problem between them.

ā€œItā€™s a misconception fuelled by ā€˜sourcesā€™ who donā€™t have the guts to speak out. Rohan is open to playing with anyone he has to play with. They played against China and won. If he didnā€™t want to play with him, he wouldnā€™t have played the China tie,ā€ Bhupathi said.

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