Hardik, Pant ignored; Dhir, Nabi get maiden ODI call-ups

Rookie Punjab allrounder Naman Dhir and Jammu and Kashmir seamer Auqib Nabi earned their maiden callups to Indias ODI squad for the upcoming series against the West Indies while veterans Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant were ignored for separate reasonsThe PTI had reported that KL Rahul will be the vicecaptain in absence of Shreyas Iyer India will play three ODIs and five T20Is against the West Indies starting September 27 in Thiruvananthapuram The T20I side will comprise mostly the Asian Games squad with Mayank Yadav and Prince Yadav coming in place of Yash Thakur and Vipraj NigamCase of Pandya and PantWhile Pandya is supposed to be declared fit on September 20 the national selection panel wont pick him if he doesnt prove that he is fit to bowl 10 overs for India A While a section in BCCI wanted Pandya to play against the West Indies directly since he could be cleared by the COE for his Return To Play by September 20 the selection panel is clear that not six overs but Pandya will only be included when he starts bowling full quota of 10 oversAlso in a significant move the selectors pulled out Nitish Kumar Reddy out of the Asian Games squad to include him in the ODI side for the West Indies series The reason being absence of Pandya and lack of seam bowling allround options who could have been tried Since Pandyas fitness has been dodgy Reddy is being seen as his heir apparentIt is understood that his services is of more importance in the ODI setup rather than T20I competition at the Asian Games where most teams are of no match to Indias quality and might In case of Rishabh Pant it is understood that selectors went by the feedback from the important members of the team management who feel that the maverick keeperbatter hasnt done justice to his phenomenal talent when it comes to white ball cricket As reported by the PTI Pant has been named captain of the Rest of India team for the Irani Cup with burly Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan as the vicecaptainJadeja earns a recallWhile Ravindra Jadejas white ball stocks are on the wane Axar Patels presence in the Asian Games squad and Harsh Dubeys untimely hamstring injury provided the 37yearold allrounder with another ODI lifeline Jadeja will get to play all three games and can once again put Axar under pressure as the selectors zero in on core 20 membersDhir and Nabi more of reservesStrangely Naman Dhirs best performances has come in T20s for Mumbai Indians while Auqib Nabi has done wonders with the red ball in the Ranji Trophy But there werent too many options available as far as the reserve middleorder batting allrounder and extra pacer is concernedDhir has played only 14 List A Games for Punjab in the Vijay Hazare Trophy scoring 357 runs at an average of 39 a strikerate of 106 and four halfcenturies to go with a top score of 97 He has also taken 7 wickets with his parttime offbreaks Nabi on his part has 56 wickets from 36 List A games for Jammu and Kashmir and also bowls at a decent economy rate of 520 But it is highly unlikely that either Dhir or Nabi will get a lookin in the first XIAkash Deep added to Rest of India squadAkash Deep who has been out with a back stress fracture for the past seven months has been picked in the Rest of India squad subject to fitness He is recovering and is nearing completion of his Return To Play protocols before he could be picked for the October 15 game in SrinagarThe Rest of India squad led by Pant has all the Ranji and Duleep Trophy performers including countrys top four rungetters R Smaran Ayush Doseja Sanat Sangwan and Sudip Kumar GharamiUpcoming Shikhar Mohan has also been picked along with veteran seamer Mukesh Kumar The spin bowling department will be handled by Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain who recently bowled in tandem in Sri LankaODI squadS Gill captain R Sharma V Kohli R Gaikwad KL Rahul vc D Jurel N Kumar Reddy R Jadeja K Yadav P Krishna G Brar M Siraj A Nabi Y Jaiswal N DhirT20I squadS Iyer captain A Sharma V Sooryavanshi I Kishan S Samson T Varma vc S Dube K Yadav A Patel W Sundar R Bishnoi N Kumar Reddy A Singh P Yadav M YadavThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever