Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli Rested for India's Tour of Zimbabwe; Ajinkya Rahane to Lead
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin have been rested for India's short limited overs tour of Zimbabwe tour next month. Harbhajan Singh has been recalled into the ODI team.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin are among six senior players rested for India's short limited-overs tour of Zimbabwe in July. Ajinkya Rahane will lead the team. The BCCI recalled Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa, while dropping Ravindra Jadeja for his string of poor performances. The national selectors picked the squad in New Delhi on Monday.
Harbhajan, who recently made his Test comeback (against Bangladesh in Fatullah), returned to the ODI squad after four years. The off-spinner had last played a one-day international in June, 2011 against West Indies. Bhajji has picked 259 wickets in this format.
#TeamIndia for Zim: Rahane (C), Vijay, Rayudu, Manoj, Kedar, Uthappa, Manish, Harbhajan, Axar, Karn, Dhawal, Binny, Bhuvi, Mohit, Sandeep
- BCCI (@BCCI) June 29, 2015
India will play three one-day internationals and two T20 internationals starting from July 10. India recently suffered a shock 2-1 defeat against Bangladesh in the ODI series.
India will be without team director Ravi Shastri. However, the support staff of Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar will accompany the squad.
Chief selector Sandeep Patil told reporters in New Delhi on Monday that the squad was chosen keeping the ICC World T20 2016 in mind. "Just like you, we were also not happy with India's performance in Bangladesh. We have to move forward."
Patil also said there was no discussion on Dhoni's offer to resign and there was no rift in the team as reported in the media. "Dhoni has only been rested. So don't read much into Rahane becoming captain," he said.
The national selectors also named the India A squad. It will be led by Cheteshwar Pujara. India A will play two four-day games against Australia A, both of which are to be held in Chennai, from July 22 to July 25, and from July 29 to August 1.
ODI squad: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), M Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma.
India A squad: KL Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shankar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, B Aparjit.