By IANS
Ahmedabad : Batting maestro Rahul Dravid was “rested” even as Virender Sehwag was recalled as the selectors Saturday picked a 15-member squad for the first two of the five One-day Internationals against Pakistan next month.
Selection committee chairman Dilip Vengsarkar said here that Dravid was “rested” and hoped he would make a “comeback soon” to the team.
The first ODI will be played in Guwahati Nov 5 and the second in Mohali Nov 8. The team for the last three ODIs will be announced later.
This is the first time Dravid, who resigned as captain after the recent England tour and has been currently out of form, has been omitted from the ODI team since the late 1990s, when the selectors felt that the Karnataka batsman was not cut out for the shorter version of the game.
But the doughty Dravid worked on his game and made a successful comeback and was not dropped from the XI until the seventh and last ODI against Australia in Mumbai Oct 17.
For the Mumbai match, Dravid, who has amassed 10,585 runs in 333 ODIs at 39.49, was dropped in favour of Dinesh Karthik, who was also dropped Saturday.
Vengsarkar said Dravid, 34, was a “great player” and that he would soon stage a comeback into the team for the last three ODIs that was yet to be picked.
“We wanted to give him a break for a while. He will soon comeback into the team; he is a great player,” he told reporters, after board secretary Niranjan Shah had announced the team.
Vengsarkar however added: “Everything depends on form, fitness and playing for the state.”
The selectors also picked Uttar Pradesh pacer Praveen Kumar in the team to be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni with Yuvraj Singh as vice-captain.
Kumar has given a good account of himself in the ongoing N.K.P. Salve Challenger Trophy here.
Venkarsarkar said Kumar’s selection was based on his performance and also because he “provides us with an option”.
Sehwag, who was part of India’s Twenty20 World Championship triumph in South Africa last month but is still out of the Test team, made a rather expected comeback.
A close look at Sehwag’s ODI scores before he was dropped reveals that he was not exactly out of form. Since scoring a fine 114 against Bermuda in the World Cup in March, he had scored 48, 30, 21, 45, 52 and 8.
Moreover, the fact that Sehwag has always scored heavily against Pakistan must have gone in his favour. In 20 ODIs against Pakistan, he has aggregated 651 at 32.55 and has been much more successful in Test matches against them.
The selectors also recalled a fit-again Gautam Gambhir, replacing S. Badrinath, who was in the team for the sixth and seventh ODIs against Australia without getting a chance to make his debut.
On the prospects of Tamil Nadu batsman Bhadrinath being included, Vengksarkar said he too was an “option” but he was not included in order to make space for Ghambir, who comes back on the strength of form.
Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik retains his place as do the rest of the players who played in the 2-4 defeat to Australia this month.
Shah said Dhoni was not present at the selection panel’s meeting but was consulted on the 15 names.
Pakistan will also play three Tests after the ODI series. On Friday, they announced their ODI team led by Shoaib Malik.
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar
Coach: Lalchand Rajput