Mahendra Singh Dhoni was today named skipper of the Indian cricket team for the
ensuing one day series against Australia and Pakistan but the selectors
held back their decision on Test captaincy.
The 26-year-old Dhoni, who is currently leading the Indian team in the Twenty20
World Cup, succeeds Rahul Dravid, who recently sprang a surprise by relinquishing
the captaincy to concentrate on his batting.
The announcement was made by BCCI Secretary Niranjan
Shah at a press conference here, putting to rest intense speculation on
the captaincy issue ever since Dravid stepped down on Friday last.
The selectors, however, did not name the captain for the Test
team with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar saying that a decision would
be taken at a later stage.
"Dhoni is a good captain and it is the right time to groom
him," Vengsarkar said.
The selectors also chose a 15-member squad for the first three
matches of the ODI series against Australia recalling paceman Irfan Pathan and
off-spinner Harbhajan Singh into the team.
The squad, which will have Yuvraj Singh as vice captain, has
no place for pacemen Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel, while Rohit Sharma has also
been omitted.
Indian team for first three ODIs against Australia: M S Dhoni
(capt), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul
Dravid, Dinesh Kaarthick, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Romesh
Pawar, Piyush Chawla, R P Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh.
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