The national selectors have picked the Indian team in Delhi on Monday ahead of their tour to Zimbabwe for three ODIs and two T20I. As expected senior players MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin were rested.
Harbhajan, who recently made his Test comeback (against Bangladesh in Fatullah), returned to the ODI squad after four years. The off-spinner had last played a one-day international in June, 2011 against West Indies. Bhajji has picked 259 wickets in this format.
India will play three one-day internationals and two T20 internationals starting from July 10. India recently suffered a shock 2-1 defeat against Bangladesh in the ODI series.
India will be without team director Ravi Shastri. However, the support staff of Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar will accompany the squad.
Stuart Binny, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have retained their respective places from the tour of Bangladesh.
The Sandeep Patil-led BCCI selection committee, that met here on Monday, also named Cheteshwar Pujara as skipper of the India A squad for the home series of two four-day games against the Australia A. Both the matches will be played in Chennai.
Coming into the senior team for Zimbabwe are Robin Uthappa, Kedar Jadhav, Murali Vijay, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan, Karn Sharma and Sandeep Sharma. However, it’s interesting to note there is no place for Wriddhiman Saha and either Rayudu, Uthappa or Jadhav will don the gloves.
It was also revealed at the press conference following the selection meeting that Team Director Ravi Shastri will not be travelling to Zimbabwe. BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and chief selector Patil addressed the media after the selection meeting.
Ravindra Jadeja has been dropped from the side after a string of poor performances. Umesh Yadav too has been dropped and he will be part of the India A squad which was selected alongside.
ODI squad: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), M 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.
