Mumbai, July 6 (Inditop.com) Former India skipper Rahul Dravid stands to make it to the one-day squad after two years as the cricket selectors Monday included him among the 30 probables for September’s Champions Trophy in South Africa.
Dravid, whose last ODI was in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur, was out of the one-day squad after his form slump but retained his place in the Test side.
The selection committee that met in Chennai felt that Dravid’s presence will strengthen the middle-order that is vulnerable to short-pitched delivery as it was proved in the World Twenty20 and the ODI series in the West Indies.
His selection among the probables for the Champions Trophy comes after he performed well during the Indian Premier League (IPL) also in South Africa, where he scored 271 runs from 13 matches at a strike rate of 115.81 for runners-up Bangalore Royal Challengers.
Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina, who are recuperating from injuries, were selected alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan, who were rested for the ODI series in the West Indies.
Youngters like Ajinkya Rahane, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni and Wriddhiman Saha were also selected amnong the probables.
Probables squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, Subramaniam Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wridhiman Saha, and Pankaj Singh.
rounak