India Test captain Virat Kohli, premier batsman Shikhar Dhawan and speedster Ishant Sharma were named in Delhi’s One-day squad, which will be led by Gautam Gambhir, for the North Zone leg of the Vijay Hazare Trophy between December 10-18.
The trio was selected keeping in mind the uncertainty over India's tour of Pakistan and the month’s window before the team travels to Australia in January for a limited-overs’ series.
Three standbys were named in case the Pakistan series is cleared.
However, the selection committee, chaired by Vinay Lamba, could not offer a convincing reply as to why India's current Test captain and prolific One-day player Kohli was not named captain.
"We had announced Gautam as the captain for the whole season as the international players were not supposed to be available. I don't think one should make a big issue if Virat plays under Gautam," Lamba told PTI after Friday’s meeting at the Roshanara ground.
However, he clarified that the selectors are yet to speak to the India players about confirming their availability.
A similar case of miscommunication occurred when Ishant Sharma was not initially named in the four-day squad despite being available as he could not be contacted at the time of the meeting.
"Look we have not had any direct contact with the players but we did not want to take any chances in case they are available. But, as a safety measure, we have kept three standbys also," Lamba said.
Interestingly, when Kohli played for Delhi in a Challenger Trophy tournament back in 2013, he led the side that had both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
For the record, veteran pacer Ashish Nehra, who has quit the longer format, was named in the One-day squad.
The squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Unmukt Chand, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Nitish Rana, Milind Kumar, Manan Sharma, Pawan Negi, Ashish Nehra, Pradeep Sangwan, Ishant Sharma, Navdeep Saini, Subodh Bhati, Shivam Sharma, Rahul Yadav (wk).
Standbys: Dhruv Shorey (Shikhar Dhawan), Vaibhav Rawal (Virat Kohli), Vikas Tokas (Ishant Sharma).
Image: Gautam Gambhir, left, and Virat Kohli during an India nets session in 2012
