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ShareMumbai: Pacer S Sreesanth today staged a surprise comeback into India's 15-member Test squad for the first two cricket Tests against Sri Lanka starting November 16 in Ahmedabad.
Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan returned to the squad after recovering from a shoulder injury, which had kept him out of India's recent assignments.
The team to be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni also includes Tamil Nadu players opener Murali Vijay and middle-order paceman S Badrinath. Ashish Nehra, who did reasonably well in the ongoing one-day series against Australia, failed to get the selectors' nod.
Pacer Munaf Patel, batsmen Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli, who are playing in the series against Australia, were not consisted for selection for the three-match Test series. As expected, the veteran batting duo of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman retained their places.
26-year-old Sreesanth will return to the Test fold after more than a year having played his last Test in April 2008 against South Africa in Kanpur.
India last played a Test match in April this year against New Zealand and the players to miss out from that squad are pacer Laxmipathy Balaji, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik and Dhawal Kulkarni.
Batsmen Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and pacer Praveen Kumar, who are playing in the ongoing series against Australia, were not considered for selection for the three-match Test series.
As expected, the veteran batting duo of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman retained their places. Barring Sreesanth's comeback, there were no major surprises in the squad, which has eight specialist batsmen, three pacers, three spinners and one wicketkeeper in Dhoni.
Zaheer's return will bolster the pace department which also has an off-colour Ishant Sharma, who has been retained despite his indifferent performance in last few months. Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will lead the spin attack with leg-spinner Amit Mishra and young left-armer Pragyan Ojha supporting him.While Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir will open the innings, Murali Vijay has been picked as reserve.
The middle-order has a stable look with Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Laxman and Yuvraj Singh forming a formidable line-up. Indians play the first Test in Ahmedabad followed by two more Tests in Kanpur (November 24 to 28) and Mumbai (December 2 to 6). After the Test series, the Sri Lankans will play two Twenty20 matches and five one-dayers.
Team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Pragyan Ojha, S Sreesanth and S Badrinath.
