Hardik Pandya, Bhunvaneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan back in Indian team; To return for South Africa series by March 12

News Bharati    09-Mar-2020 10:44:21 AM
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Hardik Pandya who was out of action for almost seven months due to an injury, is slated to be back in the Indian team with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan arriving again in the squad for the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series against South Africa starting from March 12 to March 18 in Dharamsala.
 
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Pandya had last played his ODI match for India against New Zealand in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup last year. He had been struggling with a lower back injury and had to undergo surgery. Nonetheless, he is now all ready to showcase his all-rounder performance. Dhawan had missed the New Zealand series through injury, returns in place of Mayank Agarwal. Bhuvneshwar, who last featured in the home T20I series against West Indies in December, was also suffering from his groin injury and has returned in place of Mohammed Shami who has been rested after distress in New Zealand TOur.
Further, while Pandya has proved his fitness and match-readiness in a DY Patil T20 competition at Mumbai scoring of 46, 105, 38 and 158*, he has also bowled in those games and looks set to contribute in full capacity during the series against South Africa.
 
However, Kedar Jadhav, Shivam Dube, and Shardul Thakur have been dropped from the team after displaying a poor performance in the NZ series. Meanwhile, opener Prithvi Shaw and pacer Navdeep Saini have retained their places. Rohit Sharma, the vice-captain will be missing the series due to a calf injury.
 
Squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.