India vs NZ 2016: Indian squad for last two ODIs announced
Oct 24, 2016 at 7:40 PM
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for final two ODIs against New Zealand. The selectors have retained the same squad for the final two matches with Suresh Raina being excluded from the squad as the southpaw has not yet recovered from viral fever. He also missed the first three ODI’s of the series due to the same reason as he was unable to recover from fever.
There were murmurs that selectors might rest Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane and may try out Karun Nair as an opener but they did not tinker with the current squad as the series is evenly poised with New Zealand giving an equal competition to the hosts. One thing is to be noted that selectors did not name any replacement for Raina as everyone was hoping for a comeback of Yuvraj Singh who scored a blistering century in the Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh on a fast track at Lahli but again, selectors decided not to make any changes in the squad.
This also means that we may not see any changes in playing XI as well, as Dhoni do not like to make changes in the squad, even if the results are not positive. This has now given a chance to Kedar Jadhav to seal his spot in the team as originally known as a lower order batsman, the Maharashtra captain has stunned everyone by scalping 6 wickets till now in the ODI series. At present, his bowling figures read as 10-0-46-2. Surely, he has now turned into a sweet headache for M.S. Dhoni as before the start of the series, selectors said that they are looking for an all-rounder in Raina, but with Raina failing to get well in time, now the spot has been snatched by Kedar Jadhav.
The fourth ODI is scheduled to be played in Ranchi whereas the fifth and final ODI of the series will be played in Vizag. Currently, Indian team is leading the series by a margin of 2-1.
India squad for last 2 ODIs: MS Dhoni (C), Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Umesh Yadav, Mandeep Singh and Kedar Jadhav.