The wait for the 100th century will continue. Sachin Tendulkar has decided not to play in the One-day series against the West Indies. He has been rested for the first three matches of the series.
As reported by this paper, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been rested for the series. In his place, Virender Sehwag will lead the 15-member squad in which there is no place for Yuvraj Singh. The Punjab batsman has ruled himself out on fitness grounds.
According to reliable sources, Yuvraj might undergo a surgery for his lung problem. Parthiv Patel has been included as wicketkeeper in place of Dhoni. As expected, there was no place for Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj’s statemate and a veteran of 229 ODIs. The squad has been announced for the first three ODIs to be played in Cuttack (November 29), Vizag (December 2) and Ahmedabad (December 5).
The decision to rest Dhoni was on the cards as the India captain has been playing in all formats of the game for long while Tendulkar has not played in the ODIs since the World Cup final.
They were rested keeping in mind the gruelling tour of Australia in December. “Dhoni has been rested for all five matches as he has played a lot of games,” chairman of the selection committee Kris Srikkanth told reporters after the meeting. About Tendulkar playing the last two games, Srikkanth remained non-committal.
It is unlikely that Tendulkar will play in the last two games considering that top Indian batsmen are expected to leave a week earlier for Australia. Srikkanth admitted that the squad has been selected keeping in mind the tour of Australia. “Performance of the youngsters like Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, R Ashwin and Virat Kohli augurs well for India cricket,” he said.
—With agency inputs
Squad: Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, R. Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma
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