The Indian Selection Committee met in Mumbai at BCCI office to select teams for Zimbabwe tour and a four-match Test tour to West Indies. The ODI and T20 will be led by MS Dhoni and the both ODI and T20 team are same while the Test team has seen Mohamamd Shami’s return and Sturat Binny and Rohit Sharma’s inclusion that raised eyebrow.
India will play three ODIs and the same number of T20Is in the African nation while the Test team lead by Virat Kohli will play four-match Test series in the Carribean.
Indian limited over captain MS Dhoni will lead India in ODI and T20 series in Zimbabwe. A couple of new faces is selected for the tour among them are Faiz Fazal, who is rewarded for his performance in domestic cricket. While Karun Nair, who has a good IPL turnout in 2016 is also picked up for both ODI and T20 squads.
Royal Challengers Bangalore leg spinner Yuzuvendra Chahal will be a satisfied man as he IPL hard work paid off. In the ongoing IPL, he has taken 19 wickets in 11 matches that helped RCB to qualify for the playoff.
The Indian Test opener and wicketkeeper KL Rahul also get a call from the Indian selectors due to his IPL and domestic performance.
And most of the players who were selected for Australia tour reinstated for the Zimbabwe series as Manish Pandey, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel back in the team.
Ambati Rayudu, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Barinder Sran made made comeback.
Among all of them the most surprising name is Faiz Faizan.
On the other hand, the Test tour to West Indies will be led by Virat Kohli while Ajinkya Rahane is the vice captain of the tour. The selectors kept the same team that played at home against South Africa.
Left-arm pacer Mohammad Shami who made IPL return selected for the tour. Rohit Sharma who tried and tested for so long got another opportunity along with Stuart Binny, who in his last couple of Test series failed to justify his selection.
Mumbai seamer Shardul Thakur rewarded for his Ranji trophy performance that helped Mumbai to win their 41st Ranji Trophy.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul are reinstated while Wriddhiman Saha, got an another chance to prove himself.
The Indian Test bowling department is comprised of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, rejuvenated Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
But Sturat Binny and Rohit Sharma’ inclusion raised eyebro as talented Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer onecagain ignored from the Test and ODI team.
Here are the squads:
India’s ODI squad for Zim tour:
MS Dhoni (c &WK), Faiz Fazal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaspreet Bumrah, Brainder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jhadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Yazuvendra Chahal, KL Rahul
India’s T20 squad for Zim tour:
MS Dhoni (c &WK), Faiz Fazal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaspreet Bumrah, Brainder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jhadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Yazuvendra Chahal, KL Rahul
India’s Test squad for WI tour:
Virat Kohli (c), Murali Viay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ahswin, Amit Mishra, R Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
More to follow…