India's tour of Zimbabwe: Ajinkya Rahane to lead; Ravindra Jadeja dropped

Batsman Ajinkya Rahane will be leading the Indian ODI and T20 sides against Zimbabwe in the absence of regular captain MS Dhoni and Test skipper Virat Kohli. The selection committee has accepted the request of seniors who were on an extended cricket season. 

"Until the players themselves request for a rest, we don't rest them," Sandeep Patil, the chairman of the selectors said. "We sent a full-strength side to Bangladesh, but this time the players communicated to us that they needed the rest."

One of either Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina was expected to take the leadership role but were also rested. With no regulars in the side, the selectors had no other go it seems. 

Harbhajan back in the side

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has made it to the side at the expense of Ravindra Jadeja. Incidentally, Jadeja was left out of the Test squad that played Bangladesh to include Harbhajan. The Saurashtra player has been on a woeful form averaging 18 with the bat and 43.3 with the ball since the World Cup. 

Pujara to captain India A

As everyone expected, Cheteshwar Pujara was named the captain of the side that is scheduled to host Australia for two four-day matches in Chennai. Notably, it will the first assignment for Rahul Dravid as the coach of India A side.

ODI squad: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), M Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma.

India A squad: KL Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shankar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, B Aparajith

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