Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead a new-look Indian team in the three-match ODI and three-match T20I series to Zimbabwe while Virat Kohli and a whole host of other senior players have been rested after a long, gruelling season of cricket.

b’No outing in blue for a while for Virat / Source: AFP’

Kohli will lead the team on the four-match Test tour to the West Indies, for which Ajinkya Rahane has been named as the vice-captain.

The squad to Zimbabwe is an out and out reserve squad, with the exception of the skipper, understandably because Dhoni does not have Test commitments any longer.

Some of the new names in the fray for the Zimbabwe tour are: Vidharbha left-handed opener Faiz Fazal, off-spinner Jayant Yadav, Punjab middle-order batsman Mandeep Singh and IPL star Yuzvendra Chahal being the uncapped players in the side.

For the Test series, there were no big surprises except a maiden call-up was given to promising Mumbai pacer, Shardul Thakur who was part of the Ranji Trophy winning side this season.

b’Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur earns maiden call-up / Source: PTI’

The 24-year-old right-arm medium pacer was a surprise pick in the 17-member squad with the selectors reposing their faith in the line-up that had played the last Test series against South Africa at home.

Thakur was rewarded for his consistent performance in the domestic cricket where he took 41 wickets in 11 matches for Mumbai at an average of 24.51. His best figures in an innings were six for 107.

The tour of West Indies comprises four Tests in mid-July but the exact dates for the series are yet to be formalised. 

 

Here’s the full squad list:

Teams for ODI & T20I Series to Zimbabwe:

MS Dhoni (Captain), KL Rahul, Faiz Fazal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Jaydev Unadkat, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Team for the Test tour to West Indies:

Virat Kohli (Captain), M Vijay, Shikhar Dhwan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Stuart Binny.