Dhoni, Bhuvneswar left out, Kohli to lead India

Hyderabad, Oct 21: Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar were left out of the squad for the first three of the five One-Day Internationals (ODI) against Sri Lanka, starting Nov 2, while star batsman Virat Kohli was named as the stand-in skipper of the 15-man squad selected here Tuesday.

The Sandeep Patil-led All-India Senior Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) included wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha in place of Dhoni while pacer Varun Aaron replaced Bhuvneshwar. 

The BCCI statement made no mention whether the two players were being rested.

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returns to the squad while left-arm tweaker Kuldeep Yadav, included in the squad for the West Indies series, was left out.

However, Yadav was named in the India A team — which will play Sri Lanka in a practice match Oct 30 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai — along with Rohit Sharma, who is recovering from a finger injury.

The five ODIs will be played at Cuttack, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

Sri Lanka agreed to play the ODI series as a replacement for the West Indies, whose players refused to complete the full tour of India due to a payment structure dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA).

India squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel.

India A squad: Manoj Tiwary (Captain), Unmukt Chand, Manan Vohra, Karun Nair, Rohit Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Sanju Samson, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Stuart Binny, Dhaval Kulkarni, Jaspreet Bumrah, Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav.