Suresh Raina to lead second string side in Zimbabwe triangular series

Suresh Raina will lead a second string Indian team when india travel to Zimbabwe to participate in the triangular series also featuring Srilanka. the first-choice players who are rested are regular captain MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir,Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh,and Yuvraj singh. Also omitted are the nijured Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag and Praveen Kumar.

Among the newcomers Dinda did reasonably well in the IPL, picking nine wickets in seven games and Pankaj shone in his little stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore.Naman Ojha also was the best batsman for Rajasthan Royals and thus earns his place. Umesh Yadav who impressed everyone with his pace in the IPL has also been picked.

Virat Kohli who wasn’t picked for the 20-20 world cup gets a chance as the vice captain. . Also Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja will be hoping to redeem themself after a poor outing in West indies, a nightmarish one for the latter.The selectors have also included 3 spinners in the form of Mishra, Ojha and Ashwin . Limelight will be on Ojha and Mishra to prove what the Indian team missed in the ongoing World Cup .Surprisingly Chawla hasn’t been picked for the ODI’s and will join the team later for the shortest format.

The squad is as follows:

M Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suresh Raina (capt), Virat Kohli (vice-capt), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha.

A relatively young team, selectors have given an opportunity to the emerging players to gain experience at the international arena .Raina, who also led in Dhoni’s absence for Chennai Super Kings will be hoping to impress the selectors with his captaincy skills .

Note: All matches will start at 13:00 IST . Fixtures are as follows :

Date and Time	Match
Fri May 28 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	1st Match – Zimbabwe v India Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
Sun May 30 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	2nd Match – India v Sri Lanka Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
Tue Jun 1 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	3rd Match – Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
Thu Jun 3 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	4th Match – Zimbabwe v India Harare Sports Club
Sat Jun 5 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	5th Match – India v Sri Lanka Harare Sports Club
Mon Jun 7 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	6th Match – Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka Harare Sports Club
Wed Jun 9 07:30 GMT | 09:30 local 13:00 IST	Final – TBC v TBC Harare Sports Club

Twenty twenty will be played on 12th and 13th June.