The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will announce the 15-meember squad for the five One-day international matches against New Zealand tomorrow. The new bunch of selectors, led by MSK Prasad, will table a meeting in Delhi to select the 15-member squad for the five One-day games.
M.S. Dhoni will surely be given the charge of the team with no chance or scope in a change of captaincy in limited overs format. Virat again will be assisting him in the One-day series. Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, R. Ashwin, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are some of the automatic selections in the team. The regular opener, Shikhar Dhawan, will face a stiff competition from KL Rahul who recently scored a century on his ODI debut against Zimbabwe. However, the injury might cost him his place in the team and in that case we may see Karun Nair or even Gautam Gambhir getting a nod over out-of-form Shikhar Dhawan.
There are strong chances that all-rounder, Yuvraj Singh, might be called up again in the national squad for the ODI series as recently he cleared the fitness test conducted at National Cricket Academy (N.C.A.) in Bangalore. It gave us an indication that selectors are thinking to add some experience in the squad.
It will be interesting to see that whether selectors chooses Raina in the limited overs squad or not as Raina was dropped from the 2- T20I’s squad against West indies which were played in Florida.
Jayant Yadav’s case will also make headlines as Haryana off-spinner was recently added to the Indian squad for the second Test match in place of injured Ishant Sharma. He was also the part of ODI team that toured Zimbabwe but not given a game there. He will be having a direct competition with his state mate Yuzvendra Chahal for the post third spinner. Selection of any of these two players will mean that Axar Patel will kick off the new season with domestic cricket only.
However, one cannot deny the fact that BCCI may again want to have a look at Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh as well. Probably, asking for the inclusion of any of these two players will be a vague demand but no one can deny the fact that both of them will be quite crucial in home conditions. Especially, Harbhajan Singh who has a vast experience of playing in home conditions from past 17 years, almost.
It will be the first time that new bunch of selectors will be picking up the squad, the ODI squad will give us a clear indication about the line of thought of new selectors.
Probable squad: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, M.S. Dhoni (C/WK), Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Karun Nair