India drops Dravid and Ganguly for CB Series
India’s cricket selectors ignored Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid for next month’s triangular series in Australia, raising doubts over the veteran batsmen’s one-day careers.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead a 16-man squad in the tri-series, also featuring World Cup runners-up Sri Lanka, and a Twenty20 match against the hosts. Former captains Ganguly and Dravid, both 35, are among seven batsmen in the world to have completed 10,000 runs in the shorter version of the game.
Left-handed Ganguly, with 11,363 runs in 311 matches, played his last one-dayer against Pakistan at home two months ago. Middle-order batsman Dravid was axed for a second successive one-day series. He played his last match against Australia at home in October before being dropped against Pakistan. He has so far scored 10,585 runs in 333 matches.
Batsman Suresh Raina, 21, returned to the one-day side after nearly a year, while 19-year-old paceman Ishant Sharma regained his berth after an excellent display in the ongoing Test series in Australia. Sharma, who dismissed Australia captain Ricky Ponting twice during his team’s impressive 72-run win in the third Test at Perth on Saturday, has so far figured in just one one-day international.
Fast bowler Pravin Kumar won a place after grabbing eight wickets in one innings in the final of India’s premier first-class Ranji Trophy tournament, which ended here on Saturday. Paceman S Sreesanth was also named in the squad after missing the current Test series in Australia due to a shoulder injury.
Indian team: MS Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh, S Tendulkar, V Sehwag, P Kumar, R Uthappa, I Pathan, S Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, RP Singh, I Sharma, R Sharma, S Raina, D Karthik, P Chawla.
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