Bhupathi named India's Davis Cup captain

The New Zealand tie will be the final stint for Anand Amritraj, who joined the team in 2013, as the captain of the Davis Cup team.

Mahesh Bhupathi has played 55 matches for India in the Davis Cup.

Multiple Grand Slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi will take over as the captain of the Indian Davis Cup squad for a two-year term, but Anand Amritraj has been retained as the captain for the tie against New Zealand to be played in Pune in February.

The selection committee which met under the chairmanship of former Davis Cup captain S.P. Misra, brought Yuki Bhambri back into the Davis Cup squad, and did not take doubles star Rohan Bopanna even though he had expressed his availability.

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Saketh Myneni, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Leander Paes and Prajnesh Gunneswaran will be the other members of the squad. Two youngsters Adil Kalyanpur and Nitin Kumar Sinha have been nominated to train with the team for the tie.

For the Fed Cup, national champion both on hard and grass courts this season, Riya Bhatia, has made the team along with Snehadevi Reddy, Karman Kaur Thandi and Prarthana Thombare. World No.1 doubles star Sania Mirza will be spearhead the team along with the singles No.1 for the country Ankita Raina.

Read: > Amritraj: 'It’s like changing horses midway'

Former captain Nandan Bal returns to the Fed Cup team as the captain and coach.

Balram Singh, Nandan Bal, Rohit Rajpal, Zeeshan Ali along with the secretary general of the All India Tennis Association (AITA) were the other members of the selection committee which met on Thursday.

After the strong defence by Anand Amritraj, on matters regarding discipline in the team for the last three years that were floating freely in the media, and the staunch support from the players, it was perhaps difficult for the selection committee to be harsh on him straightaway.

The team:

Davis Cup: Saketh Myneni, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Yuki Bhambri, Leander Paes and Prajnesh Gunneswaran. Reserves: Adil Kalyanpur, Nitin Kumar Sinha.

Captain: Anand Amritraj; Coach: Zeeshan Ali.

Fed Cup: Sania Mirza, Ankita Raina, Snehadevi Reddy, Karman Kaur Thandi, Riya Bhatia and Prarthana Thombare.

Captain and coach: Nandan Bal.