By IANS,
Mumbai : Yuvraj Singh will lead Board President’s XI against Australia in the warm-up match in Hyderabad from Oct 2-5.
Yuvraj, who has been going through a bad patch, was left out of the Irani Trophy squad against Ranji Trophy champions Delhi.
Subramaniam Badrinath has been named the vice-captain of President’s XI.
Opening batsmen Akash Chopra and Wasim Jaffer will get another opportunity to fight for a Test place, though as of now Gautam Gambhir is expected to partner Virender Sehwag in the first Test in Bangalore. Middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma will have to play a big innings to show that he is good enough to be in the Test side.
Fast bowler Shantakumaran Sreesanth, who has been out of India squad with an injury, is back and he will have to prove his match fitness.
Parthiv Patel seems to have taken a march over Dinesh Karthik as the reserve India wicketkeeper-batsman with the selectors picking him for the Hyderabad game.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and left-arm Pragyan Ojha are the two short-listed spinners for bigger things in the near future.
The India A team for two four-day matches against New Zealand A was also named. Chennai will host both matches from Sep 28 and Oct 3.
Interestingly, Saurashtra captain Jayadev Shah, the son of Indian Board secretary Niranjan Shah, has been made the deputy to Suresh Raina who is getting an opportunity to prove his captaincy mettle. Most of the players have been picked on the strength of their performance in the Indian Premier League.
President’s XI:
Yuvraj Singh (captain), S. Badrinath (vice-captain), Wasim Jaffer, Akash Chopra
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kholi, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), Irfan Pathan
S. Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony,
Yogesh Takawale, Rakesh Dhruve.
India A:
Suresh Raina (captain), Jaydev Shah (vice-captain), M. Vijay, Shikhar Dhavan
Sahil Kukreja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha
Ashok Dinda, Dhaval Kulkarni, Sudip Tyagi, Amit Mishra, Pradip Sangwan,
Mohnish Parmar