India name second string squad under Raina for Zimbabwe tour

Senior players were rested as India on Sunday named a second-string squad with Suresh Raina as the captain and Virat Kohli his deputy for the low-profile Zimbabwe tour starting later this month.

Regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra were rested as the BCCI senior selection committee, which met at Kodaikanal on Sunday, named a young 15-member squad with new faces galore.

Dinesh Karthik has been named the specialist wicketkeeper for the tour which begins with a tri-series -- also involving Sri Lanka -- on May 28 while Madhya Pradesh batsman-stumper Naman Ojha is also part of the squad.

Once the tri-series is over on June 9, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla will join the squad for India's subsequent two Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe on June 12 and 13.

Apart from Karthik and Naman Ojha, the side includes specialist batsmen Murali Vijay, Raina, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, besides all-rounders in Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and offie Ravichandran Ashwin will spearhead the slow bowling department in the tri-series, while the largely inexperienced pace attack will comprise Umesh Yadav (Vidarbha), R Vinay Kumar (Karnataka), Ashok Dinda (Bengal) and Pankaj Singh (Rajasthan).

The selectors also announced a 16-member India 'A' squad for a tri-series in England, naming Cheteshwar Pujara as its captain and Wriddhiman Saha his deputy.

Zimbabwe Tri-series squad: Suresh Raina (capt), Virat Kohli (v-c), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha.

T20 squad: Suresh Raina (capt), Virat Kohli (v-c), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha and Piyush Chawla.

India 'A' team: Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Wriddiman Saha (v-c & wk), Abhinav Mukund, Shikar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Sourav Tiwary, Iqbal Abdulla, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhaval Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Mithun, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Jaskaran Singh, Bipul Sharma and Jayadev Unadkad.