Mumbai: While the young Rishabh Pant was identified as MS Dhoni’s potential successor and picked in India’s T20 squad, Yuvraj Singh made a comeback to the national side as the Team India selectors on Friday announced ODI, T20I and India A squads to face England.
Yuvraj, who was dropped from the Indian side after the conclusion of ICC World Twenty20 last year, made the cut to India’s ODI and T20 sides following a fine run of form in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season wherein he scored 672 runs for Punjab in five matches. If Yuvraj happens to play in the ODI against England, he will represent India in the 50-overs format after three years.
MSK Prasad, chief selector for Team India, termed Yuvraj’s comeback “a due chance”.
“We should appreciate how Yuvraj Singh has played in domestic cricket. In fact, all these days, we were thinking he has not played a long innings,” Prasad said.
“He played some fantastic innings this season. He scored a double hundred, scored 180 on a Lahli wicket. He has done extremely well in domestic cricket and (hence) given a due chance,” Prasad added.
Prasad also spoke about how the selection committee went on to pick the side.
Virat was on Skype with us and we really stick to the combination. And after speaking to him, this is the best possible team we have arrived at,” concluded Prasad.
Indian squad for England ODIs:
KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (captain), MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav.
Indian squad for England T20s:
KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli (capt), MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra.
