Wall returns, India pick squad

India picked their squad for the Compaq tri series in Sri Lanka featuring NewZealand as the 3rd side and also the Champions Trophy to be held in the month of September..


Krishnamachari Srikkanth, the chairman of selectors and his colleagues of the selection committee met on Sunday in Chennai and announced the same ODI squad for both the upcoming series.

Dravid's return was more or less certain for both the tournaments since the selectors believed that such a move would bolster the Indian middle order which looked vulnerable to short-pitch stuff during the Twenty20 World Cup in England.

Dravid played the last of his 333 ODIs back in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur and the former India captain has amassed 10,585 runs at an average of 39.49.

Indian opener Virender Sehwag, who is yet to complete his rehabilitation after undergoing a shoulder surgery has expectedly failed to find a place in the squad.

As expected, Tendulkar who made himself unavailable for the four-match ODI series in the West Indies in June-July, is back to the squad along with  Suresh Raina ,who missed the Windies tour due to an injury, that has costed Rohit Sharma his place in the side...

Yusuf Pathan, who has been chipping in with the bat besides rolling his arms to good effect, has retained his place but Ravindra Jadeja has paved the way for Abhishek Nayar who did not get a fair chance in the West Indies..

Other notable omission is Badrinath, fair enough, with Dravid, Yuvi, MSD, Raina in the middle order Badri wouldn't have got a game..

Pragyan Ojha has been left out which is the biggest surprise, he has been the most potent spinner with Bhajji nowadays looking to control the run flow than to take wickets Ojha with his spin, flight and guile could have been a good pick on the turning wickets of Lanka and also in SA..

Amit Mishra who has been bowling with pink, green and orange balls in the emerging players' tournament was the leading wicket taker and most probably that has prompted the selectors to give him a chance in the national ODI side as well..

Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Yusuf Pathan, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik.