Team India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who were rested from the recent limited-overs series against Australia, once again missed out while Test opener KL Rahul also failed to find a place in the 15-member squad for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand.
Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin are playing in the Ranji Trophy. The duo hasn’t played for India since the Test series in Sri Lanka two months ago. Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel are the three specialist spinners in their absence.
Rahul failed to get a single game in the recently concluded 5-match ODI series against Australia, with Ajinkya Rahane opening the innings along with Rohit Sharma. But with Dhawan back into the side, only one between Rahane and Rahul could have got a place in the squad. Rahane slammed four fifties against Australia and thus, is included in this series as well.
Dinesh Karthik, who last played for India during the West Indies tour in July and was also a part of the Champions Trophy squad, has been included in the squad again.
India are scheduled to play three ODIs and three T20Is against New Zealand team and the first ODI will be played on October 22 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Squad :
Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur.
