Mahendra Singh Dhoni will not be part of India’s T20 squads against Windies and Australia. The national selection committee, in a marathon meeting here on Friday, decided to leave out Dhoni for the next six T20s in a bid to try out second-choice wicketkeepers — Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik.
“We are looking at second wicketkeeper options and (that’s why) we've picked Rishabh (Pant) and (Dinesh) Karthik,” India’s chief national selector, MSK Prasad, said. However, Prasad made it clear that this was not the end of Dhoni in the shortest format.
Read: When will Dhoni be seen in India colours again?
The selectors also named an 18-member squad for the four Tests against Australia. While Virat Kohli will lead the side, Murali Vijay will return to action in Test whites. After a dismal outing in the first two Tests against England, Vijay was dropped for the remainder of the series and the succeeding Test matches against West Indies at home.
And the chief selector admitted that the right-hander's form in the county circuit — he scored a hundred for Essex — had helped him return to the Test fold. Parthiv Patel, who was in the team for the South Africa tour earlier this year, has also been included in the Test squad.
The team will leave for Australia on November 16 and will play a solitary first-class game from November 28, before the Test series.
Kohli rested
Kohli has also been rested for the three-match T20 series against the Windies, keeping his ‘workload’ in mind. In his absence, Rohit Sharma will lead the side in the T20s which begins from November 5.
Jharkhand left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who has been one of the consistent performers in the domestic circuit, has received a call-up to the T20 squad for the three T20Is against Windies.
Jadhav returns
Meanwhile, Kedar Jadhav, who was initially left out of the remaining three ODIs against Windies, has been included in the side for the fourth and fifth fixture. This came after he cleared the fitness test.
Hardik Pandya is yet to recover from his injury and will not be available for selection until after November 15. He will feature in India A’s one-day fixture in New Zealand in December.
The squads:
For Windies T20s: Rohit Sharma (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Dinesh Karthik (w.k.), Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (w.k.), Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem.
For Australia T20s: Virat Kohli (Capt.), Rohit Sharma (Vice-capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (w.k.), Rishabh Pant (w.k.), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed.
For Australia Tests: Virat Kohli (Capt.), M. Vijay, K.L. Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-capt.), Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (w.k.), Parthiv Patel (w.k.), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
For India A's first four-day match in New Zealand: Ajinkya Rahane (Capt.), M. Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel (w.k.), K. Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani, Vijay Shankar, K.S. Bharat (w.k.).
For India's last two four-day games in New Zealand: Karun Nair (Capt.), Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, R. Samarth, Ankeet Bawane, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, K.S. Bharat (w.k.), Ishan Kishan (w.k.), K. Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani.
For India A one-dayers in New Zealand: Manish Pandey (Capt.), Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Shubman GIll, Shreyas Iyer, Ankeet Bawane, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (w.k.), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Siraj Kaul, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed.
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