Shardul, Karthik return to Team India; no Ashwin-Jadeja

Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur and Tamil Nadu batsman Dinesh Karthik found a place in India ODI squad for the first three matches against New Zealand starting October 22.

K.L. Rahul — who was in the squad for the five-match ODI series against Australia — missed out. However, Rahul hadn’t played a single game in the tour.

Read: NZ start tour with Sepak takraw-like drills

India’s premier spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been ignored again. Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel will share duties in the spin department.

Also read: Astle, Phillips in New Zealand squad for India series

Speedsters Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have been left out too. The onus will now be on Bhuvneshwar Kumar to lead the pace attack along with Jasprit Bumrah and Thakur.

India squad

Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur