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ShareMumbai/Chennai: Rahul Dravid is back in the ODI scheme of things.
He has been included in the Indian squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka and subsequent Champions Trophy in South Africa. Both the tournaments will be held next month.
Dravid's recall was more or less on expected lines but his presence was all the more necessitated by the absence of Virender Sehwag. The Delhi opener is yet to recover from a shoulder injury. Dravid is included for the solidity he can bring to the middle order, particularly on the bouncy South African pitches. The veteran batsman had last played an ODI in October 2007. Dravid joins fellow veteran Sachin Tendulkar, who is back in the ODI squad after missing the four-match series in the West Indies.
"This is the best possible team. This is a balanced side and we expect it to win the Champions Trophy," selection committee chairman K Srikkanth said at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk on Sunday.
The surprise part of the selection is the inclusion of Haryana leg-spinner Amit Mishra, in place of left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, and Mumbai's Abhishek Nayar, in place of more experienced Munaf Patel.
The not-so-surprise part of the selection was the exclusion of Rohit Sharma. The Mumbai batsman has been rather non-impressive lately. Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik were preferred to him. The squad features eight batsmen, four pacers, two spinners and one all-rounder, Yusuf Pathan.
With Sehwag missing, India may have a new opening pair of Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir followed by Dravid, Yuvraj, Raina, Yusuf and skipper MS Dhoni himself somewhere in between in the line-up. The bowling line-up has Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh and Harbhajan Singh besides Mishra and Nayar.
The squad will have a four-day training camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore from August 27. They will leave for Colombo on September 8 for the tri series (Sept 8-14) after playing in the Corporate Trophy in the first week of next month.
Squad: Dhoni (c), Yuvraj (vc), Tendulkar, Gambhir, Dravid, Raina, Y Pathan, Harbhajan,Nehra, RP Singh, Ishant, Karthik, P Kumar, A Mishra & A Nayyar
