'Gambhir, Yuvraj can still make a comeback to Indian team'

Former captain Sourav Ganguly says the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan can still make a comeback to India's national team but they need to be "hungry" for that.

All the three players are, along with Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh,  out of favour these days, as young guns like Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Bhuvaneshver Kumar and R Ashwin are performing excellently in their absence.

"No player is completely out of the team. In 2011, the Indian team looked incomplete without these players. And now they are out of the team. So you cannot say what will happen tomorrow," Ganguly told Star Cricket.

"They are all very good players. They have won India World Cup, Test matches, Test series. So if they have hunger inside them, they can surely be back. They just need to focus on cricket, train hard, be fit and make a comeback.

"They are all great players.

"Sehwag is one of the greatest as an opener in Indian cricket. Zaheer is closing in on 300 wickets. Look at the performance of Yuvraj Singh in World Cups, be it 2007 or 2011. He has been the best. So you can't keep such players out for a long time. They would want to do better than what they have already done," he added.

Ganguly also endorsed Gambhir's decision to join English county side Essex, saying his focus should be on playing as many matches possible.

"It's a good decision, because it's an off-season in India. And at this age, he should play cricket as much cricket as possible and find form," the 41-year-old said.

"He is only 30 now. So there is still 10 years of cricket left in him. Every player goes through a rough patch. I hope he learns from this and plays some good cricket to stage a comeback," he said.