Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Jayant Yadav are likely to be rested for the upcoming limited-overs series against England, starting January 15. The Indian team is already plagued with several injuries and the Indian Express has reported the selectors are not willing to take a risk before the one-off Test against Bangladesh and the four-match Test series against Australia.
The trio played a very crucial role in the recently-concluded Test series against England and will be vital to team’s plans in the next Test series. Ashwin and Jadeja finished the series as the top two wicket-takers with 28 and 26 wickets respectively while Jayant, making his Test debut in the series, finished with nine scalps. The trio was also instrumental with the bat too and chipped in with useful contributions in almost every outing.
Meanwhile, India’s limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has not played for the team since the home series against New Zealand in October, has informed the BCCI of his availability for the two practice games for Board of President XI against the England.
Confirming the news, a BCCI official said:“As he is short of match practice he has decided to play the two Board of President XI games. One will be day and second game will be a day-night affair.”
The selectors are looking to try out Shikhar Dhawan in the practice games. The southpaw, who has been out of the team since the Test series against New Zealand, has struggled to get going in recent times and the selectors are keen to check his match fitness during the practice games. With Rohit Sharma likely to miss the series, Dhawan is the only experienced opener. The team tried Ajinkya Rahane as opener during the New Zealand series but he failed to perform well which might pave the way for the Delhi opener.
The report from the Indian Express further stated Karun Nair and Manish Pandey are also in the fray for the warm-up games.
The limited-overs series consists of three ODIs followed by as many T20Is. The series will start on January 15 in Pune.