Sachin rested for WI Tests; Kohli, Ishant in

Agencies

New Delhi, 28 May 2011: The Test team for the West Indies tour saw a return of some old faces and the inclusion of some new ones as Sachin Tendulkar opted out and Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh were ruled out for the entire series due to injury and sickness.

The BCCI selection committee that met in Chennai also appointed VVS Laxman as MS Dhoni’s deputy for the Test series. Rahul Dravid too has been picked for the series, while Abhinav Mukund and Virat Kohli have been given Test call-ups.

Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay and S Badrinath are the other specialist batsmen who have been included in the Test squad. Parthiv Patel, who was named as wicketkeeper for the ODI series, will stay on for the Tests as well.

 

 

India has decided to take a four-pronged pace attack to the Caribbean and have picked Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma. Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra are the spinners in the side.

 

According to the statement issued by the BCCI, "Tendulkar requested that he be allowed to spend time with his family. He will therefore not play the Test series. However, he will be available for the full tour of England, that follows."

India Test squad: M S Dhoni (Captain), VVS Laxman (Vice Captain), M Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel.