Kohli to lead India, Rasool in squad for Zimbabwe

Mumbai: Parvez Rasool on Friday became the first player from Jammu and Kashmir to be named in the Indian cricket team as the selectors opted to rest captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and four other top players for the five-match ODI series in Zimbabwe later this month.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were also recalled in the 15-man squad to be led by Virat Kohli.

Saurashtra pacer Jaydev Unadkat and Haryana speedster Mohit Sharma were also named in the squad announced by BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel after a meeting of the selection committee in Mumbai.

Apart from Dhoni, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Aswhin were also rested while Murali Vijay was dropped from the team.

The selectors also decided to ignore Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar for the Zimbabwe tour to be held from July 24 to August 3.

Indian team for Zimbabwe:

Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool, Mohammed Shami, Vinay Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohit Sharma.