Shikhar Dhawan

The 14 men squad for the 3 ODI’s which start on Sunday was announced. Only newbie is the Delhi opener Shikhar Dhawan. The squad looks fragile. BCCI secretary N srinivasan said in a statement on Tuesday that some frontline players have been rested namely-Tendulkar, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and fast bowler Zaheer Khan. “Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma are undergoing treatment for minor injuries and have therefore not been included,” Srinivasan said. Gambhir and Ishant are ssuffering from knee injuries which also ruled them out of the second test.

Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan will be the probable openers for India. Dhawan, 24, was one of the active contributing members of the Mumbai Indians walk to finals this IPL. He was also the Delhi’s highest scorer with 355 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy this domestic one-day tournament. “It was always at back of my mind that if I keep performing well I will get a chance,” Dhawan said. “The IPL was a great learning experience. It’s like an international tournament, playing with paaji [Tendulkar, with whom he opened the innings for Mumbai Indians] playing such a level gives you lots of confidence. If I get a chance to play for India I’ll be more confident since I’ve played at that kind of level.”

R Ashwin is another rookie who will be followed and has to capitalize this opportunity. He along with Ravindra Jadeja forms the spin department for India in the tournament in the absence of Bhajji and Ojha. And, Ashwin was instrumental in the recent CLT20 and IPL wins for Chennai.

Saurabh Tiwari, the Jharkhand Batsman and medium pacer Vinaj Kumar were a part of squad for the past two one-day tournaments. But, they didn’t get good enough chance to display their flair. They will hopefully now. Yuvraj Singh has also been included in the squad and he would look to perform well. He has been under the knife recently as he was left out. But, he made a comeback in the ODI series against Sri-Lanka (Though he had again not been selected in the 2 match test series against Australia).

Australian squad too looks insubstantial. All-Rounder Shane Watson, the captain Ricky Ponting and fast bowler M.Johnson have been left out. The Aussies will be led by Michael Clarke. The series kicks off on Sunday at Mohali.

Indian squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, R. Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma.

Tags: BCCI, Cricket, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, India, Indian Sports, ODI Cricket, ODI Series, Sachin Tendulkar, Sports, Sports India, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan