Rahane to lead India in Zimbabwe; Dhoni, Kohli among those rested

The Indian selectors have named Ajinkya Rahane as the captain for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe. MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin are amongst those who have been rested. Harbhajan Singh has made a comeback to the ODI side. The request to be rested came from the players, said chief selector Sandeep Patil.

The national selectors met in Delhi to pick the squad. The tour which was initially in doubt after BCCI's problems with the host broadcaster was given the go-ahead after BCCI officials met with Zimbabwe Cricket officials on the sidelines of the ICC conference in Barbados earlier this week.

Team Director Ravi Shastri already cited his unavailability for the tour. Chief selector Sandeep Patil confirmed that Ravindra Jadeja had been dropped. The squad consists of a lot of players who are making a comeback to the ODI side and the selectors have rewarded the likes of Robin Uthappa and Murali Vijay for some consistent performances in the domestic circuit.

India Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Murali Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma

India are set to play three ODIs and two T20s in Zimbabwe starting July 10.    

The India 'A' squad has also been picked for the tri-series against Australia 'A' and South Africa 'A' and Cheteshwar Pujara was named captain.

India A squad: KL Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara (C), Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shanker, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, Baba Aparajith

Answering a specific query on Harbhajan Singh, Patil said, "We cannot say (he's back on a) long term basis. Looking at his performance in the last series, we have considered him. We feel he deserves opportunity."

Patil also added that the team was picked with the World T20 in mind. "Team has been chosen keeping T20 WC 2016 in mind. Just like you, we were also not happy with India's performance in Bangladesh. We have to move forward," he said.

Thakur added that the BCCI Working Committee will meet again in July to take a decision on the India coach.