NEW DELHI, Sept 18: Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Tuesday was named India’s new cricket captain for the upcoming one-day home series against Australia and Pakistan as the selectors looked to the future.

“The selectors have appointed Dhoni as captain for one-day series against Australia and Pakistan,” Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah told reporters.

India will figure in 12 one-dayers at home, seven against Australia, starting this month, and five against Pakistan in November.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhoni, 26, took the high-profile but high-pressure job after strong contender Sachin Tendulkar opted out of the one-day captaincy race.

The 34-year-old Tendulkar, the world’s leading scorer in the shorter version of the game with 15,425 runs in 395 matches, has admitted to finding successive one-day games too tiring of late.

The appointment opened the way to a split captaincy for the first time in Indian cricket, with Tendulkar likely to lead in Tests and Dhoni in One-day Internationals in the coming busy international season.

Dhoni has spent barely three years in big-time cricket, but has impressed with his breathtaking strokeplay and sound temperament. He is already in charge at the ongoing Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.

Tendulkar has twice led India in the past decade, his last stint coming to an end in 2000 after losing a two-Test home series against South Africa.

The selectors now have some time to pick a Test captain before India start their next series in November against Pakistan before leaving for Australia in December for a Test series.

The selectors were forced to find a new skipper after Rahul Dravid surprisingly ended his two-year stint last week, saying he was longer enjoying the job and wanted to concentrate on his batting.

Dhoni’s first big test comes when India open their seven-match series against Australia with a day-night game at Bangalore on Sept 29.

ODI squad: Mahendra Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Romesh Pawar, Piyush Chawla, Rudra Pratap Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh. —Agencies