Gambhir named captain for West Indies ODI series

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Gautam Gambhir has been named captain of the Indian Twenty20 and ODI team that will be touring the West Indies in June while Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan have been rested.

The trio will, however, be available for the three-match Test series beginning June 20. Suresh Raina has been named the vice captain. The selection committee that met here on Friday picked the 16-member squad along expected lines, though the omission of opening batsman Murali Vijay came as a surprise.

Subramaniam Badrinath and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel were rewarded for their strong performance in the domestic competition with a recall. Wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has also been drafted in the team along with batsman Rohit Sharma, who was not part of the World Cup squad. Pacers Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, and Praveen Kumar, and leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who missed the World Cup, are also back in the squad.

Praveen Kumar had missed out due to an elbow injury, Besides the five selectors, Dhoni, newly-appointed India coach Duncan Fletcher, BCCI secretary N.Srinivasan, as the convenor, were present. India are scheduled to play one Twenty20 (June 4) game, followed by five One-day internationals (June 6-16) before a three-Test series (June 20-July 10). The squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Suresh Raina (vice captain), Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper), Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Subramaniam Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra and Wriddhiman Saha.