Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested from India”s ODI series against New Zealand which commences from October 22. This is the third series on the trot where the duo has been rested. They earlier missed ODI series against Sri Lanka in August and against Australia in September and continue to remain out of favor in ODI and T20I formats.
Shikhar Dhawan makes a comeback to the side. He earlier missed the ODI series against Australia to spend some time with his ailing wife. He returned for T20Is though. KL Rahul has been axed from the side. He had a terrible time in Sri Lanka with the bat and didn”t get a game against Australia.
Shami and Umesh are the others on whom the selection ax fell as they didn”t live up to the expectations in Australia ODI series. Fast bowler Shardul Thakur and Dinesh Karthik are the two new inclusions to the side.
India plays 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is against New Zealand starting from October 22. This is New Zealand”s second trip to India in 2 years. Last year they were here for 3 tests and 5 ODIS.
There were reports that Ashwin has cleared the Yo-Yo fitness test this month. That makes him eligible for selection in the Indian team. Still, he finds himself out as Chahal and Kuldeep have grabbed their opportunities with both hands and are performing well. Ashwin and Jadeja have not performed up to their potential in ODI format since 2015 World Cup.
As always, India enters into the ODI series as favorites and will be looking to clean sweep New Zealand 3-0. It”s up to Kiwis to spring a surprise and cause an upset. However, this is going to be super tough for them against an invincible looking Indian team in red-hot form in their own backyard
India Squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Shardul Thakur
– by Atharva Apte
