Wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik and pacer Shardul Thakur were on Saturday recalled for the three-match ODI series against New Zealand while selectors continued to ignore senior spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Aswhin.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan has also returned to the ODI team after missing the series against Australia due to his wife’s illness. However, he did play the T20 series against Australia.
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.
Notable names missing from the squad are of batsman K L Rahul, Ashwin and Jadeja. The spin duo has not played for India since the Test series in Sri Lanka two months ago.
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.