Sachin rested, Yuvi recalled for ODI tri-series

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir have been rested from the 15-membered squad for the forthcoming one-day tri-series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, the National Selection Committee announced on Saturday.

While Sachin incurred a groin injury during his marathon knock of 200 during the second Test against Sri Lanka, Gambhir has been left out due to his knee injury.

Yuvraj Singh, however, found his way back into the ODI squad after being dropped from the Asia Cup.

Tamil Nadu off-spinner R Ashwin and Jharkhand batsman Saurabh Tiwary, two promising youngsters who have done well in the domestic circuit, have been retained in the squad to be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The tri-series, which has host Sri Lanka and New Zealand as the two other teams, will be held in Dambulla from August 10 to 25.

Meanwhile, after missing the Test series due to shoulder injury, pacer Zaheer Khan has been omitted from the ODI tri-series as well as he couldn’t recover on time. In the absence of Zaheer, veteran speedster Ashish Nehra will lead the pace attack which also has Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun and Praveen Kumar.

Ishant and Mithun, who were not in the Asia Cup squad, have been included this time around probably because they have already acclimatised to the Sri Lankan conditions as they are in the Test squad.

Harbhajan Singh will too give a miss to the series, as R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha will take care of the spin department.

Kerala paceman S Sreesanth, who is recuperating from a knee injury, has not been picked in the squad, announced by BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan after a meeting of the selection committee here.

There were no major surprises with the selectors more or less retaining the nucleus of the squad that won the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in June.

“Ashok Dinda and Manish Pandey will replace R Ashwin and Sourav Tiwary in the Indian team participating in the Emerging Players tournament in Australia,” Srinivasan said in a statement.

The batting will largely depend on the fireworks of Virender Sehwag while there are a number of young talents like Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli who have already established themselves in the national team.

In the absence of Gambhir, Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik is likely to open the innings with Sehwag.

Ravindra Jadeja is the lone all-rounder in the squad although there are a number of batsmen who are known to be part time bowlers.