The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced the squad for Twenty20 and one day internationals (ODIs) against England that start on January 15, and named Test skipper Virat Kohli as captain for all the formats.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who quit the captaincy, has been named as the specialist wicket-keeper-batsman, and Hero of the 2011 World Cup all-rounder Yuvraj Singh is making a comeback after the World T20 last year.
The squad was announced by chief selector MSK Prasad.
Uncapped player Rishabh Pant has been named in the T20 International squad.
Among the notable omissions is Ajinkya Rahane. He has been dropped from the T20 team and Pant replaces him as a batsman who will also be Dhoni’s understudy in limited overs for the time being.
“We know what Mahi is all about, he is a captain by nature, a leader from the front,” Mr. Prasad showered accolades on the outgoing captain.
Yuvraj was in splendid form during the Ranji Trophy and scored 672 runs in five games at an average of 84 with a highest score of 260 against Baroda before he took a break due to his marriage.
“We should appreciate how Yuvraj has played. He did extremely well in domestic cricket, which has been appreciated,” Mr. Prasad told mediapersons.
Kohli spoke to them over Skype and was taken into confidence before his selection, Mr. Prasad said. “Virat has spoken to us, he was with us on skype. After discussing, this is the best possible team we could pick.”
Mr. Prasad said he felt that they have done their best with the team selection. “This is a fantastic team, we are very clear in our concsience. Whether success or failure, this committee takes the responsibility for it.”
T20 squad
The T20 squad comprises KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli (capt), MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashish Nehra
ODI squad
The ODI squad comprises KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (Captain), MS.Dhoni, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkhya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, R. Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav.
The meeting for selecting the ODI and T20 teams started on Friday, after the Lodha Committee gave the nod to conduct the selection process, in Mumbai.
As per the Supreme Court orders, no BCCI office-bearer took part of the meeting.
Earlier, the Lodha panel said that since Amitabh Chaudhary is no longer the joint secretary, he cannot convene the BCCI’s selection committee meeting.
The BCCI continued to show defiance despite a clear verdict from the Supreme Court and needed a written directive from the Lodha panel to go ahead with its selection committee meeting, which was delayed by three hours on technical grounds.
