Yuvraj Singh, on Monday, returned to India’s limited-overs 15-member squad for the only Twenty20 and first three ODIs of the home series against Australia starting October 10.
In all, there were four changes in the ODI squad that won the Champions Trophy in England. While Yuvraj replaced out-of-form Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik lost his place to Mumbai Indians teammate Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami was included in place of injured Irfan Pathan and left-arm medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat got preference over Umesh Yadav, who at times disappoints with his erractic line and length.
Yuvraj last played for India against England in an ODI in Dharamsala last January. He didn’t feature in the Champions Trophy squad and wasn’t picked for the West Indies tri-series and Zimbabwe series either. However, following a fitness stint in France, Yuvraj has shown good improvement in his performance in list A matches that he has played recently. With 224 runs from three matches, including a hundered and a fifty at an average of 74.66, he was the top-scorer for India A against the touring West Indies A. He also scored a half-century for India Blue in the recently-concluded NKP Salve Challenger Series.
Altogether, Yuvraj has scored 337 runs in five list A matches at an average of 67.40 with a highest score of 123 against the touring Caribbean side. He also scored a quickfire 52 against West Indies A in a T20 game in Bangalore.
With his useful left-arm spin as back-up, selectors might have considered fit-again Yuvraj a bigger asset than Vijay, who sat out during the Champions Trophy with Rohit Sharma opening the innings.
The choice between Karthik and Ambati Rayudu. Karthik had scored two centuries in practice matches in England but could score only one half-century in the main matches. His failure to score even a single half-century in the tri-series must have weighed against him as Rayudu got preference over Karthik.
Umesh’s exclusion remais a curious case. It is unclear wheather he has been dropped, rested or saved for Test matches. He couldn’t have been rested because he has just returned from a break. Neither can he be considered unfit because he participated in the Challenger Trophy last last week. So, the selectors have either started to look at him as a Test only pacer or he has been axed owing to his below-average performance in Champions Trophy. He didn’t do his case any good by performing poorly in the Challenger Trophy.
Bengal speedster Mohammed Shami, Karnataka seamer Ranganath Vinay Kumar and Saurashtra’s Unadkat were retained from the pace attack that played against Zimbabwe.
Haryana paceman Mohit Sharma, who was man-of-the-match on his ODI debut in Zimbabwe, was expected to replace Vinay, but the Karnataka pacer managed to retain his place. Vinay was expensive (at 6.03) during Challenger Trophy, although he took eight wickets in three matches.
From the squad that toured Zimbabwe, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and J&K all-rounder Perveez Rasool too missed out.