Yuvraj Singh makes comeback into Indian team for Aus tour

12/19/2015

The Indian squad for the ODI and T20 away series against Australia was announced by the BCCI Selection Committee earlier today in Delhi.

Both teams will be captained by MS Dhoni with Virat Kohli as the vice-captain. Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma made a comeback into the ODI squad, while Himachal Pradesh all-rounder Rishi Dhawan and Punjab left-arm pacer Brainder Sran got maiden call-ups to the 15-member squad. 23-year old Sran has 34 wickets from 11 first-class games and 14 wickets in six matches in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy. Right-arm medium-fast bowler Rishi Dhawan has 220 wickets and 2165 runs with a healthy batting average of 40.84 in 51 first-class matches.

Suresh Raina along with Ambati Rayudu, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra and Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped from the ODI squad, while Mohit Sharma missed out through injury.

ODI Team #AusvIND: Shikhar, Rohit, Virat, Rahane, Manish, MSD (C), Ashwin,Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Axar, Ishant, Umesh, Gurkeerat, Rishi, Sran
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 19, 2015

Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra,Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja were recalled into the T20 squad with the Indian team lacking experience.

“We will need experienced players in the T20 WC. Australia tour perfect chance to give them a shot,” said selection committee chairman Sandeep Patil.

Yuvraj Singh last featured for India in the 2014 T20 World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Bangladesh, while Ashish Nehra last played in 2011.

Baroda all-rounder and Mumbai Indians player Hardik Pandya got a maiden call-up into the T20 national team with Stuart Binny missing out. 22-year old Pandya is a right-arm medium-fast bowler with 17 wickets and 594 runs in his short first-class career. In his debut IPL season in 2015, Pandya scored 112 runs with a strike-rate of 180.64 and picked a solitary wicket with an economy of 10.35 in nine matches.

Ambati Rayudu, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel and S Aravind were dropped from the 15-member T20 squad.

T20 Team #AusvIND : Shikhar, Rohit, Virat,Rahane, Yuvraj, MSD (C),Raina, Ashwin, Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Harbhajan, Umesh, Hardik, Bhuvi, Nehra
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 19, 2015

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur also stated that Mahendra Singh Dhoni will remain the captian of both the ODI and T20 sides till the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup in March.

India are scheduled to play a five-match ODI series from January 12 to 23 and the T20 series begins on January 26 with the final match on January 31.