Mumbai: India's out of favour senior cricketers Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan were given a lifeline as they were picked to represent India A in two four-day games against the West Indies A later this month.
Gambhir and Zaheer were out of the Test side last year while Sehwag last played a Test in March. There was also some good news for 32-year-old Mohammad Kaif, who last played a Test in 2006, as the former India U-19 captain has also been selected in the A team.
M Vijay, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha, who all toured with the India A side in South Africa last month, have been left out due to their Champions League T20 commitments.
The two four-day games with West Indies A clash with the Champions League T20.
Yuvraj Singh will be leading the one-day side against West Indies A, and also India Blue in the Challenger Trophy, the domestic season opener. Yuvraj was dropped for the Champions Trophy and the tri-series in the West Indies.
Irfan Pathan will be leading India Red. Delhi by the virtue of being defending Ranji Trophy one-day champions are the third side in the tournament.
India A squad for the first four-day game: Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Jiwanjot Singh, KL Rahul, Manpreet Juneja, Rajat Paliwal, Harshad Khadiwale, Parvez Rasool, Bhargav Bhatt, Ishwar Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Ashok Dinda, Rohit Motwani (wk), Dhawal Kulkarni, Paras Dogra.
India A squad for the second and third four-day games: Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sheldon Jackson, Abhishek Nayar, Paras Dogra, Uday Kaul (wk), Parvez Rasool, Bhargav Bhatt, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zaheer Khan, Ishwar Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Mohammad Kaif.
India A squad for the three 50-over games and one T20: Yuvraj Singh (capt), Unmukt Chand, Robin Uthappa, B Aparajith, Kedar Jadhav, Naman Ojha (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Jaydev Unadkat, Praveen Kumar, Sumit Narwal, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mandeep Singh, Rahul Sharma.
India Red squad for the Challenger Trophy: Irfan Pathan (capt), Robin Uthappa, Abhinav Mukund, Saurabh Tiwary, Gurkeerat Mann, Kedar Jadhav, Smit Patel (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Suraj Yadav.
India Blue squad for the Challenger Trophy: Yuvraj Singh (capt), Akshath Reddy, Naman Ojha (wk), Mandeep Singh, Ankit Bawane, Abhishek Nayar, Manish Pandey, Piyush Chawla, Ankit Rajpoot, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Iresh Saxena.
