The focus was clearly on youngsters as the Indian selection committee named a 15-member squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe series. The Sandeep Patil headed five-member panel included three young bowlers Parvez Rasool, Mohit Sharma and Jaydev Unadkat for the five-match one-day series to be held from July 24 to August 3 at Harare and Bulawayo. Young batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Chesteshwar Pujara too have been included in the squad.
Senior players Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan were overlooked yet again. Though Sehwag, Yuvraj and Zaheer are not in the country at the moment and there were some concerns about their fitness, Gambhir was tipped to make a comeback.
But the selectors chose to give Rahane one more chance in the low-key series and also added one more batsman to the squad in the form of talented Pujara at the expense of a pacer.
The highlight, howver, is the Jammu and Kashmir all-rounder Rasool, who will make his India debut. This is the first time that a cricketer from the Valley has made it to the national squad.
Haryana pacer Mohit too will feature in his first-ever India series, as the selectors decided to rest frontline bowlers from the triumphant Champions Trophy squad.
The series also marks a first in ODIs for Saurashtra players Unadkat and Pujara. Both have represented India in Test cricket though.
“Ishant Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have been rested,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel here on Friday.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who sustained a hamstring injury during the match against the West Indies in the ongoing tri-series in the Caribbean, has been rested and his replacement Ambati Rayudu retains his place. Virat Kohli will continue to lead the side in Zimbabwe.
Murali Vijay was the only exclusion from the batting line-up.
Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Karthik who didn’t got to bat much during the Champions Trophy will fancy their chances in Zimbabwe. The new opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have been given an uninterrupted run.
Bowlers Vinay Kumar and Amit Mishra, who didn’t play in the Champions Trophy and haven’t featured yet in the tri-series in the West Indies, were retained in the squad. Mohammed Shami who replaced injured Irfan Pathan for the tri-series also keeps his place.
Tamil Nadu opener Vijay however, finds a place in the India A squad for the tour of South Africa which will be captained by Pujara. The India A team also includes Rasool and a number of other youngsters like Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddharth Kaul and Ishwar Pandey.
India A squad
Cheteshwar Pujara (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Parvez Rasool, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Shami, Stuart Binny, Ishwar Chand Pandey, Jaidev Unadkat, Siddharth Kaul.
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