Ravindra Jadeja back for Tests, Harbhajan left out
S Arvind, the medium pacer from Karnataka who made his international debut in the first Twenty20 International in Dharamsala against South Africa, replaced Umesh Yadav for the last two ODIs in Chennai and Mumbai. Umesh, however, has been named in the Test squad.
R Ashwin, who picked up a side strain in the first ODI at Kanpur while diving on his followthrough has been left out of the last two matches, but was named in the Test squad.
While Jadeja last featured in the Test side in August 2014 on India’s tour of England, he has been drafted in on the back of his form in the Ranji Trophy so far. Having scored 149 runs in two matches, he also picked up 24 wickets that have assisted his cause.
Harbhajan Singh, who was a part of the squad that played the one-off Test in Bangladesh and one that toured Sri Lanka for the three-Test series, was left out after meagre returns in two of the four matches that he featured in.
In addition, for the tour game that will be played in Mumbai, Cheteshwar Pujara was named skipper of the Board President’s XI that consisted of budding youngsters like Shreyas Iyer, Karn Sharma, Karun Nair among the rest.
“We have confidence in our captain, coach and the director. I am sure we will come back in the series,” said chief selector Sandip Patil.
He also made it clear that Yuvraj Singh was not in contention. “Yuvraj Singh’s name was not discussed in the meeting today,” he said.
The first of four-Test series begins on November 5 at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.
India ODI squad: MS Dhoni (c, wk), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Axar Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Mohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, S Arvind, Stuart Binny, Ambati Rayudu, Gurkeerat Mann .
India Test squad (first two Tests): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Stuart Binny, Varun Aaron, Ishant Sharma.
Board President XI: Cheteshwar Pujara (c), KL Rahul, Unmukt Chand, Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Hardik Pandya, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Nathu Singh, Karn Sharma, Sheldon Jackson