India name second string squad under Raina for Zimbabwe tour

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

Regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ] and senior players Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ], Harbhajan Singh [ Images ], Zaheer Khan [ Images ], Gautam Gambhir [ Images ] and Ashish Nehra [ Images ] 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 [ Images ] has been named the specialist wicketkeeper for the tour which begins with a tri-series -- also involving Sri Lanka [ Images ] -- on May 28 while Madhya Pradesh [ Images ] batsman-stumper Naman Ojha [ Images ] is also part of the squad.

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

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

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra [ Images ], left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha [ Images ] 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 [ Images ]), Ashok Dinda [ Images ] (Bengal) and Pankaj Singh (Rajasthan [ Images ]).

The selectors also announced a 16-member India 'A' squad for a tri-series in England [ Images ], naming Cheteshwar Pujara [ Images ] 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 [ Images ], Manish Pandey [ Images ], Sourav Tiwary, Iqbal Abdulla, Sudeep Tyagi [ Images ], Dhaval Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Mithun [ Images ], Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Jaskaran Singh, Bipul Sharma and Jayadev Unadkad.