Sach, Zak, back in ODI squad
Sachin Tendulkar will be playing in his first ODI series since last summer’s successful outing at the World Cup in the upcoming tri series involving Australia, India, and Sri Lanka to be played in Australia.
Praveen Kumar is one of the other players who will be making a comeback into the Indian team after missing the Test matches thanks to a fractured rib. He is part of a 17 man Indian outfit that will be in contention for the couple of Twenty 20 internationals followed by the ODI tri-series which will be played from February 5th to March 8th.
The squad is quite familiar to the one that was picked for the last two ODI’s at home against the West Indies in December. Irfan Pathan, who made a comeback to the team during that series, has also been picked. Seeing his track record in these parts in the past, the younger of the two Pathans will relish this opportunity to make a mark. Zaheer Khan will also stay on for the ODI series, and like Tendulkar, he will be playing in his first limited overs competition after the World Cup last year. Umesh Yadav and R Vinay Kumar have also been picked for the series.
R Ashwin continues to keep out senior pro Harbhajan Singh, who, to be fair has not had any impact in the domestic circuit after the axe fell on him. Ashwin will be supported by Rahul Sharma, who has been picked as the second spinner.
Manoj Tiwary’s hundred against the West Indies appears to have helped him clinch a berth while Parthiv Patel has been picked as the reserve wicket-keeper. Ravindra Jadeja’s excellent form in the shorter version of the game ensured that he was picked as Yuvraj Singh continues to be out of the reckoning as he is yet to recover from the non-malignant tumor that has been troubling him since the World Cup.
Squad: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary, Parthiv Patel (wk), Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Irfan Pathan, R Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Rahul Sharma, R Ashwin
