Visakhapatnam: When it seemed as if it was the end of road for some of the out-of-form seniors for the upcoming international tours, including that of South Africa, later this year, BCCI on Tuesday threw a surprise by including them in the India 'A' teams. Taking into consideration their past records, the selectors showed faith in the abilities of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh and have given them a chance to comeback to form in the upcoming series against the West Indies 'A'.
With no domestic cricket in the upcoming months, this for sure can become a boon for the seniors who have the capabilities to bounce back when the chips are down for them.
While Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir got a lifeline for staging a comeback to the national team as they were included in the India 'A' squad for two four-day games against visiting West Indies 'A' next month, Yuvraj Singh was also given an opportunity to force his way back into the ODI team after being named captain for the three-match unofficial series and lone T20 match against West Indies 'A' beginning September 15.
All the four players have been out of the Indian team since early this year. They will play under Cheteshwar Pujara in the second and third four-day games at Shimoga (October 2-5) and Hubli (October 9-12), the Cricket Board said in a media release. The trio of Zaheer, Sehwag and Gambhir were not named for the first four-day game that will be held at Mysore from September 25-28.
All the three matches of the unofficial ODI series will be played in Bangalore on September 15, 17 and 19. The lone T20 match will also be played there on September 21.
The Squads:
India 'A' squad for three One-Day Games and T20 games against West Indies 'A': Yuvraj Singh (captain), Unmukt Chand, Robin Uthappa, Baba Aparajith, Kedar Jadhav, Naman Ojha (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Jaydev Unadkat, Praveen Kumar, Sumit Narwal, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mandeep Singh, Rahul Sharma.
India 'A' sqaud for the first four-day match against West Indies 'A': Cheteshwar Pujara (captain), Jiwanjot Singh, K L Rahul, Manpreet Juneja, Rajat Paliwal, Harshad Khadiwale, Parvez Rasool, Bhargav Bhatt, Ishwar Chand Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Ashoke Dinda, Rohit Motwani, Dhawal Kulkarni (wk), Paras Dogra.
India 'A' sqaud for the second and third four-day match against West Indies 'A': Cheteshwar Pujara (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sheldon Jackson, Abhishek Nayar, Paras Dogra, Uday Kaul (wk), Parvez Rasool, Bhargav Bhatt. Dhawal Kulkarni, Zaheer Khan, Ishwar Chand Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Kaif.
India Red Squad for the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy: Irfan Pathan (captain), Robin Uthappa, Abhinav Mukund, Sourabh Tiwary, Gurkirat Mann, Kedar Jadhav, Smit Patel (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav Suraj Yadav.
India Blue Squad for the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy: Yuvraj Singh (captain), Akshath Reddy, Naman Ojha (wk), Mandeep Singh, Ankit Bawane, Abhishek Nayar, Manish Pandey, Piyush Chawla, Ankit Rajpoot, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Iresh Saxena.
