Out-of-favour players Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir were on Tuesday handed a lifeline for staging a comeback to the national team as they were included in the India A squad for two four-day games against visiting West Indies A next month.
Yuvraj Singh, another player who find himself on the sidelines, was also given an opportunity to force his way back into the ODI team after being named captain for the three-match unofficial series and lone T20 match against West Indies A beginning September 15. The squads were named by the BCCI senior selection panel which met on Tuesday.
All the four players have been out of the Indian team since early this year. They will play under Cheteshwar Pujara in the second and third four-day games at Shimoga (October 2-5) and Hubli (October 9-12), the Cricket Board said in a media release.
The trio of Zaheer, Sehwag and Gambhir were not named for the first four-day game that will be held at Mysore from September 25 to 28.
Jammu and Kashmir all-rounder Pervez Rasool has been picked for all the three matches for the unofficial Test series.
Yuvraj, who played his last international match in January in an ODI against England, will lead a 14-member one-day and T20 team which has the likes of Unmukt Chand, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Jaydev Unadkat and Praveen Kumar.
All the three matches of the unofficial ODI series will be played in Bangalore on September 15, 17 and 19. The lone T20 match will also be played there on September 21.