Indian squad for Zimbabwe tour announced; Ajinkya Rahane named captain

Ajinkya Rahane will captain the Indian team for the first time

The BCCI selection committee has announced the squad for the tour of Zimbabwe which is scheduled for next month. Ajinkya Rahane has been named as the captain for the tour which will consist of 3 ODIs and 2 T20Is and begins on July 10.

A total of 8 changes have been made from the side that played the ODI series against Bangladesh earlier this month. There were reports that a few senior players had blamed the loss against Bangladesh on fatigue and it is no surprise that the likes of captain MS Dhoni and vice-captain Virat Kohli have been rested.

Manish Pandey and Sandeep Sharma, who have been impressive in the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the last couple of years, find themselves in an ODI squad for the first time in their careers. Pandey has been a cornerstone of Karnataka’s success in domestic tournaments recently as well.

Murali Vijay, Manoj Tiwary, Harbhajan Singh, Robin Uthappa, Kedar Jadhav and Karn Sharma make a return to the national squad, with Uthappa likely to get the wicket-keeper’s gloves ahead of Jadhav. Harbhajan, who has 259 ODI wickets to his name, last played a 50-over match for India in 2011.

In addition, it has been confirmed that Ravi Shastri, who has served as the team director over the last 10 months, will not travel with the team to the African country.

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