Before the team selection meeting, India was taken aback by the news of Indian captain MS Dhoni asked for rest was rumored around by the media. But luckily nothing like that either has happened or confirmed. MS Dhoni attended the meeting where the squad consisting of 15 players for first two ODIs against England is picked.
Indian selectors announces the squad for England ODI series
As expected Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel were not considered for selection because of injuries. Most of the players who played at last ODI series in England are retained. The big talking point will be the exclusion of Harbhajan Singh and whether the Rahul Sharma can justify his selection with very little domestic experience. Also S Aravind, left-arm medium pace bowler was selected ahead of Ashish Nehra in the ODI squad.
Kris Srikanth, Chairman of selectors said during the press release of the team list, “This is the first selection meeting of the new committee and we had a good discussion. MS Dhoni and new selector Jimmy (Mohinder Amarnath) were with us. We discussed everything threadbare and we have come to a good combination. We have chosen a very balanced side”.
He further added, “We have not compromised on quality, it is a well-balanced side, a rejuvenated one, and even Dhoni is confident we will do well in future. This is our home series and in home conditions, I am confident we will do well. Seniors cricketers were unfit so they were left out and we have a lot of youngsters. Youngsters bring a lot of enthusiasm. We ensure we have a fully fit team”.
Indian ODI Squad (for first two ODI’s only): MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, S Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary and Praveen Kumar.
Selectors have also announced the squad of three teams for challenger trophy which will be held from Oct 10th to 13th in Nagpur. They named Harbhajan, Gambhir and Badrinath as the captain for India Green, Red and Blue teams respectively. The happy one is that Irfan Pathan is back and he will be hoping to use this chance for full effect to force his way back into the Indian team soon.
India Blue: S Badrinath (capt), M Vijay, Paul Valthaty, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mandeep Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, YV Krishanatry, Prashant Parameshwaran, Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava.
India Green: Harbhajan Singh (capt), Robin Uthappa, S Anirudha, T Suman, Mohnish Mishra, Ishank Jaggi, Mohammad Kaif, CM Gautham (wk), Sarabjit Ladda, Iqbal Abdulla, Abhimanyu Mithun, Samad Fallah, Ishwar Choudhary and Sumit Narwal.
India Red: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Abhinav Mukund, Ambati Rayudu, Ashok Menaria, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Jalaj Saxena, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Pankaj Singh, Jaydev Unadkat, TP Sudhindra, Yusuf Pathan and RP Singh.
Tags: Cricket, England, Harbhajan Singh, India, Indian Cricket Team, Indian Selectors, MS Dhoni, ODI Series, ODIs, Squad
