Chopra, Das dropped for Kanpur, Rajkot ties

Nikhil Chopra, who is yet to be investigated by Board of Control for Cricket in India's vigilance commissioner K Madhavan in connection with the betting and match-fixing scandal, has been dropped from the Indian team for the last two one-day internationals against Zimbabwe, at Kanpur and Rajkot.

Orissa's Shiv Sunder Das, who batted with character in the Test series but was not considered for the three one-dayers, has also been left out of the 14-member team announced on Friday.

Delhi's middle-order batsman and useful off-spinner Virender Sehwag has been included in the side in place of Das while the seasoned Ashish Kapoor replaces Chopra.

Selection committee chairman Chandu Borde, who announced the team in Jodhpur, defended Yuvraj, who has not been performing well in the last few matches. He said: "Yuvraj's name was discussed but the committee felt he is a very talented players and we thought if we drop him like that he may lose his confidence."

On Chopra's omission from the team, BCCI secretary J Y Lele said the selection committee had got a directive from BCCI president A C Muthiah that he (Chopra) should not be picked till a final decision is been taken on him by the disciplinary committee.

The names of V V S Laxman and Murli Kartik were also discussed but Sehwag got the nod, he said.

The team: Saurav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Hemang Badani, S Sriram, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Vijay Dahiya, Virender Sehwag, Sunil Joshi, Zaheer Khan Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Ashish Kapoor.

Mail Cricket Editor