Dhoni dropped from India’s Twenty20 squads
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NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been dropped from India’s Twenty20 teams for the home series against West Indies and the tour of Australia, it was announced after selectors revealed the squads on Friday.
Dhoni, 37, has been the team’s mainstay after making his mark as a wicketkeeper-batsman and later as leader in all the three formats.
But Dhoni, who led India to its inaugural World T20 triumph in 2007 and the 50-over World Cup title in 2011, finds his name missing in the 16-member T20 squads.
Meanwhile, skipper Virat Kohli has been rested for the three T20 matches against West Indies starting on Nov 4 in Kolkata and will return for the Australia series.
Emerging wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik have been named in both the T20 squads with a possible eye on grooming Dhoni’s successor.
Dhoni has represented India in 90 Tests, 329 ODIs and 93 T20 matches since making his debut in 2004 in a one-day game against Bangladesh in Chittagong.
Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay recalled for Australia Tests
The player once dubbed “Captain Cool” retired from Tests in 2014 and then relinquished the limited-overs captaincy in 2017.
The first of three T20 matches in Australia will be played in Brisbane on Nov 21 before the teams move to four Tests and four ODIs.
Meanwhile, India recalled batsmen Rohit Sharma and Murali Vijay to their 18-man Test squad for the tour to Australia, opting to bank on experience for the four-match series.
Veteran Parthiv Patel was chosen as the second wicket-keeper along with the 21-year-old Pant, who made his Test debut during India’s five-match series in England.
Rohit has shown strong form in limited-overs matches but was dropped from the Test side following a poor return in South Africa earlier this year when he scored 78 runs in four innings.
Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan opened for India in the first match of the England series but the duo were dropped during the 4-1 defeat and also left out of India’s two-Test home series against West Indies.
The right-handed Vijay, however, responded to his exclusion by making a hundred and three half-centuries for Essex in the County Championship.
“We felt that Rohit’s nature of play, a very good back-foot player, his game is suited for Australia,” India’s chief selector MSK Prasad told reporters. “Murali Vijay was dropped from the England series. He went back and he played the county and showed his intent and performed and considering the intensity of the series, we’ve considered him for the Australia series.”
Prithvi Shaw, 18, who made a sparkling debut with a century against West Indies, and Lokesh Rahul were the other openers in the squad.
All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who injured his back during the Asia Cup, has not recovered sufficiently to make the squad and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja will fill the role in Australia.
Squads:
For T20 series against West Indies:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem
For T20 series against Australia:
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed
For Test series against Australia:
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Published in Dawn, October 28th , 2018
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