The MSK Prasad-led selection committee has also taken away Ajinkya Rahane’s vice captaincy, appointing Rohit Sharma as Virat Kohli’s deputy. Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant, who went to the West Indies, were omitted.
India batsman Yuvraj Singh on Sunday was axed while Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami were rested from the Indian cricket team for the five-match One Day International series and one-off Twenty20 against Sri Lanka. Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey and Mumbai’s Shardul Thakur were included in the 15-man squad announced after a two-hour long selection meeting. Rohit Sharma and Yuzvendra Chahal also got a call-up for the series starting from August 20. Left-handed batsman Suresh Raina, whose name was doing the rounds, was not included in Virat Kohli’s team.
For Yuvraj, fitness became a bigger issue than his form, it is learnt. The left-hander looked a pale shadow of his former self during the Champions Trophy, both with the bat and in the field. Still, he went to the Caribbean for the ODIs after the ICC event as an unchanged squad had been named.
A two-time World Cup winner and one of India’s finest limited overs exponent, the 35 year old Yuvraj’s place was always under the scanner.
After a 50 against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy opener, Yuvraj hardly did anything notable as his last seven ODI innings fetched him only 162 runs.
A senior BCCI official, who is privy to selection policy said that Yuvraj is no longer in contention for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.
https://twitter.com/imVkohli/status/897050009153044481
Yuvraj has scored over 8000 runs in 304 ODIs, apart from playing 40 Tests and 58 T20 Internationals.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s selection also indicates, he is in scheme of things for the 2019 World Cup in England.
Dinesh Karthik, who did a decent job in the West Indies was also dropped since he was picked as Manish Pandey’s replacement.
Jasprit Bumrah makes a comeback after much needed rest while rookie Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur has also been included in the side.
The spin department will be relatively young with left-arm spinner Axar Patel and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to support chinaman Kuldeep Yadav.
There were rumours that Virat Kohli wouldn’t be playing the ODI series but the Indian captain put all those to rest on Friday. “Who said I am not playing? I don’t know where this came from, but I have no problems in playing,” Kohli answered to a query on team selection during a press conference.
The five-match ODI series begins on August 20 at Dambulla and the last one is on September 3 at Colombo. The only T20I will be played on September 6.
Indian team for ODIs and one-off T20I: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (vice captain), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur.
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