New Delhi: Karnataka pacer Prasidh Krishna, all-rounder Krunal Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav earned their maiden ODI call-up on Friday as selectors named them in India's 18-member squad for the three-match series against England.
Krishna and Krunal have been rewarded for their good performances in the recently held Vijay Hazare Trophy while Suryakumar's selection was not a surprise given his stupendous batting in the fourth T20I against England.
Krishna, who has been on the radar for a while and has also earned Virat Kohli's praise, took 14 wickets in the domestic 50-over competition while Krunal, who has played 18 T20Is, earned his maiden ODI call-up by scoring two hundreds and as many fifties in five games for Baroda.
All three ODIs will be played in Pune, starting March 23.
Stupmer-batsman Rishabh Pant and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar are back in the side and so is Washington Sundar, who played his only ODI in December, 2017.
Bhuvneshwar, who has done well in the ongoing T20 series, is set to play his first ODI since August, 2019.
In the absence of the rested Jasprit Bumrah, who recently got married, and injured Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar will lead the pace attack.
Left-arm pacer T Natarajan has regained fitness and therefore finds a place in the squad following an impressive outing in Australia.
It seems, the squad has been picked in such a way that India continue to work on their preparation for the T20 World Cup.
Ishan Kishan has not been picked despite his impressive show in the T20s probably because the team already has two wicket-keepers in K L Rahul and Pant.
Rahul opens batting in T20s but he would bat in the middle order in ODIs with Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit being team's preferred openers.
Pant would keep wickets and also bat on middle order, leaving no place for Kishan in playing XI.
The players who have missed out from the previous series in Australia are Mayank Agarwal, Navdeep Saini and Manish Pandey.
Pressure will be on Dhawan to perform from game one considering India are spoilt for choice in the opening department that also has Rahul and Shubman Gill.
Following his impressive run in Tests, Mohammed Siraj has also been picked for the games to be played in front of empty stands.
Though Ravindra Jadeja has resumed training, he is yet to regain full fitness and hence has not been included.
ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), K L Rahul (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur.
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