Rahul's future in doubt
Veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid's one-day future looked in doubt Thursday after he was dropped for the first two home matches against world champions Australia starting later this month.
The 36-year-old had returned to the team for a tri-series in Sri Lanka last month after spending nearly two years in the wilderness. He figured in three more matches in the recent Champions Trophy in South Africa before being axed again.
Dravid, only the third Indian after Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to have completed 10,000 one-day runs, fared reasonably well on his return as he scored 180 in the last five matches.
Hard-hitting opener Virender Sehwag and all-rounder Yuvraj Singh returned to the squad after recovering from injuries.
Sehwag, who missed the World Twenty20 in England in June and the Champions Trophy due to a shoulder injury, has scored 6,592 runs in 205 one-dayers with 11 centuries.
Yuvraj was ruled out of the Champions Trophy after suffering a finger injury during a practice session before India's first match in the competition.
India failed to qualify for the semi-finals of both global events.
"The selectors were advised that Yuvraj would definitely be fit to play [in the second one-dayer at Nagpur] on Oct 28," Indian cricket board Secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.
"It is possible that he may be able to play the first match as well. The decision on the playing eleven for the first match will be made based on Yuvraj's fitness on October 25."
The hosts made five changes from the Champions Trophy squad, with paceman Munaf Patel and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja making comebacks. Seamer Sudeep Tyagi is the lone new face in the 15-man squad.
All-rounders Yusuf Pathan and Abhishek Nayar, left-arm seamer Rudra Pratap Singh and batsman Dinesh Karthik were also dropped.
The squad for the remaining five games of the seven-match series will be announced later.
SQUAD
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra.
SCHEDULE
Oct 25 1st ODI at Vadodara
Oct 28 2nd ODI at Nagpur
Oct 31 3rd ODI at Delhi
Nov 2 4th ODI at Mohali
Nov 5 5th ODI at Hyderabad
Nov 8 6th ODI at Guwahati
Nov 11 7th ODI at Mumbai
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