India squad announced for first 3 ODIs against New Zealand; KL Rahul dropped

New Delhi, Oct 14: The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Saturday (October 14) announced the 15-member Indian cricket team for the first three matches of the ODI series against New Zealand.

India-NZ series schedule India-NZ series schedule

The three matches between Blackcaps and Men In Blue will be played on 22, 25 & 29 October after the visiting side plays two warm-up games.

Shikhar Dhawan, who missed the ODI series against Australia due to personal reasons, is back into the squad.

Karnataka batsman KL Rahul has been dropped from the side while wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik and pacer Shardul Thakur have made a comeback into the side. Rest of the Indian team remains the same that played against Australia.

Senior India spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have once again failed to make it to the limited-overs squad. This further confirms the fact that the spin-twins do not fit into skipper Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri's scheme of things as far as the limited-overs are concerned.

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik & MS Dhoni make it to the team.
— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2017

Same was the case with pacers Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who were part of the side against Australia ODI series. Karthik, who last played for India during the West Indies tour in July and was also a part of the Champions Trophy squad, has been picked again. The 32-year-old was named in the India T20 squad for the recently-concluded Australia series but did not get a game.

Speedster Thakur was ignored for the series against Australia after playing in Sri Lanka. Now, he has been picked in place of Umesh Yadav, who has been dropped.

Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel are the three specialist spinners in their absence. Ashwin and Jadeja are currently playing the Ranji Trophy for their respective states and the former had even cleared the yo-yo fitness test.

The Team: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur.