India make three changes to the one-day squad

India have recalled Yuvraj Singh, Murali Kartik and Vijay Bharadwaj for the remaining two crucial encounters in the five-match one-day series being played against Zimbabwe. The selectors were also slated to name the squad for the tour of West Indies after their meeting in Kochi on Wednesday evening. After more than three hours of deliberations, well into the night, The Honorary Secretary of BCCI Niranjan Shah informed the media that the selectors shall only name the squad for the West Indies tour after the one-day series. The squad is to be picked on 21st March in Mumbai.

Anil Kumble has been rested for the remainder of the one-day series due to his niggling shoulder injury. Shah was confident that after a good period of rest, Kumble would easily make it to the West Indies bound squad. He refused to comment on the exclusion of Shiv Sunder Das, who was initially drafted in as a replacement for the injured Virender Sehwag. The third player to be left out is Sarandeep Singh, who had a relatively poor match in Kochi.

The selectors have obviously noted Yuvraj Singh's unbeaten innings of 163 at close of play on the second day in the Duleep Trophy match against South Zone at Faridabad. North Zone will be without his services for the remaining days as he has to rush to Hyderabad. Murali Kartik almost forced his inclusion with a match-winning perormance in the recent Ranji Trophy Final. The left-arm spinner represents the national champion Railways and has been regularly coming up with good performances. The only surprise inclusion is Bharadwaj from Karnataka - a handy off spinner and a hard hitting batsman.

Shah explained that the decision to postpone the naming of the squad to tour the West Indies was taken in light of the India's loss to Zimbabwe in the Kochi one-dayer. He added that the India A team would leave for South Africa on 19th evening. India A skipper Dinesh Mongia and Mohd Kaif would join the rest of the team in South Africa after the completion of the one-day series against Zimbabwe.

The squad is as follows:

Sourav Ganguly (Captain), Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Mongia, Mohd Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Ajay Ratra, Vijay Bharadwaj, Tinu Yohannan.