Mumbai, July 31 (IANS) The senior selection committee Saturday decided to rest Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh and recalled Yuvraj Singh in the 15-member Indian cricket squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka, involving New Zealand as the third team, starting Aug 10.
The selectors also rested Gautam Gambhir, who missed the second Test in Sri Lanka due to a knee injury.
Tamil Nadu off-spinner R. Ashwin and Jharkhand batsman Saurabh Tiwary have been retained in the side and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who has not recovered fully from his shoulder injury, has been left out. Zaheer also missed the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka.
‘Ashok Dinda and Manish Pandey will replace R. Ashwin and Sourabh Tiwary in the Indian team participating in the Emerging Players tournament in Australia,’ BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement.
Veteran speedster Ashish Nehra will lead the pace attack comprising Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun and Praveen Kumar.
Ishant and Mithun were not included in the Asia Cup squad, but are leading the pace attack in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lankan.
Yuvraj was dropped from the Asia Cup squad due to poor form and has been given another opportunity to reclaim his position in the team.
The tri-series will be held in Dambulla from Aug 10 to 25.
The squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha and Saurabh Tiwary.
