Taking Dhoni’s inputs on hectic schedules of Indian Cricket into the consideration, Indian selectors have named Ajinkya Rahane as the captain for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe and rested senior players, including MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja. Harbhajan Singh has made a reentry to the ODI side. Dhoni recently commented publicly that the players are exhausted due to the restless tours.
After the broadcasting issues with Ten Sports were sorted out by BCCI officials, the national selectors met in Delhi to pick the squad.
Team Director Ravi Shastri already cited his unavailability for the tour. The squad consists of the likes of Robin Uthappa and Murali Vijay who are making waves in the domestic level with back to back performances.
India Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Murali Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny,
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma.
India is set to play three ODIs and two T20s in Zimbabwe starting July 10.
The India 'A' squad has also been picked for the tri-series against Australia 'A' and South Africa 'A' and Cheteshwar Pujara was named captain.
India A squad: KL Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara (C), Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shanker, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, Baba Aparajith
Answering a specific query on Harbhajan Singh, Patil said, "We cannot say (he's back on a) long term basis. Looking at his performance in the last series, we have considered him. We feel he deserves opportunity."
Chief selector Sandeep Patil said that the team was picked with the World T20 in mind. "Team has been chosen keeping T20 WC 2016 in mind. Just like you, we were also not happy with India's performance in Bangladesh. We have to move forward," he said.
Another selector Thakur stated that the BCCI Working Committee will meet again in July to take a decision on the India coach.
- Manohar
