J&K's Parvez Rasool picked for Zimbabwe tour, Dhoni & other seniors rested

Young allrounder Parveez Rasool today created history by becoming the first cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to be named in the Indian team as the selectors opted to rest captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and four other key players for the upcoming ODI tour of Zimbabweu00a0 The 24yearold Rasool who has been in contention for national selection for a while now after a string of impressive performances got the nod in the 15member squad with the selectors preferring to go in with a young team for the fivematch ODI series to be held from July 24 to August 3 at Harare and Bulawayo Prolific batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were also recalled in the squad to be led by young Virat Kohli who is currently captaining the team in the West Indies following a hamstring injury to Dhoniu00a0 Parvez Rasoolu00a0has become the first cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to be included in the Indian national team File Pic Saurashtra pacer Jaydev Unadkat staged a comeback while Haryana speedster Mohit Sharma who made an impression in the IPL6 for Chennai Super Kings was rewarded with his maiden callup in the senior team announced by BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel after a meeting of the selection committee here Mohit who has played 11 firstclass matches and taken 44 wickets over two seasons had an impressive season for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2013 He picked up 20 wickets in 15 matches to emerge as one of the leading uncapped players of the tournament Apart from Dhoni pacemen Ishant Sharma Bhuvneshwar Kumar Umesh Yadav and spinner Ravichandran Aswhin were also rested while opener Murali Vijay was dropped from the teamu00a0 The selectors also decided to ignore veterans like Gautam Gambhir Virender Sehwag Zaheer Khan Praveen Kumar and Yuvraj Singh quotThe team for Zimbabwe has been selected and we wanted to go in with a young sidequot Patel said when asked about the likes of Gambhir and other seniors The team has seven specialist batsmen three spinners and four fast bowlers and one wicketkeeperbatsman in Dinesh Karthik With Vijay dropped the opening combination of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma is likely to be persisted with while the middleorder will comprise Kohli Pujara Suresh Raina Ambati Rayudu and Ajinkya Rahane The decision to rest Ashwin paved the way for Rasool39s selection in the senior team since he is also an offspinner who has earned praise from the legendary Bishan Singh Bedi who has coached Jammu amp Kashmir in the past season Rasool who was once arrested in Bangalore for allegedly carrying explosives before being released made headlines after being named in the India A squad for the warmup matches against England and Australia in late 2012 and early this year Although he did not make much of an impact against England Rasool returned impressive figures of 745 against the Aussies in February In that particular match he was also the second highest scorer for his team with 36 The allrounder cashed in on the opportunity to become the first cricketer from the valley to bag an IPL contract when he was signed by Pune Warriors India ahead of the sixth edition of the cashrich T20 league He took 46 wickets in 17 firstclass matches and 1003 runs at an average of 3857 The selectors also picked the India lsquoArsquo team for the tour of South Africa which will be captained by Pujarau00a0 The India lsquoArsquo team also includes Rasool and a number of other youngsters like Shahbaz Nadeem Siddharth Kaul Wriddhiman Saha Ishwar Pandey and Stuart Binny The team also has some senior players like Dhawan Vijay Raina Rohit Sharma Rahane Rayudu and Karthik The India lsquoArsquo team is scheduled to play a triseries against Australia lsquoArsquo and South Africa lsquoArsquo and two fourday games on the tour Indian team for Zimbabwe Virat Kohli captain Shikhar Dhawan Rohit Sharma Dinesh Karthik Cheteshwar Pujara Suresh Raina Ambati Rayudu Ajinkya Rahane Ravindra Jadeja Amit Mishra Parveez Rasool Mohammed Shami Vinay Kumar Jaidev Unadkat Mohit Sharma India lsquoArsquo team for tour of South Africa Cheteshwar Pujara captain Shikhar Dhawan Murali Vijay Rohit Sharma Suresh Raina Ambati Rayudu Dinesh Karthik Ajinkya Rahane Wriddhiman Saha Parvez Rasool Shahbaz Nadeem Mohammed Shami Stuart Binny Ishwar Chand Pandey Jaidev Unadkat Siddharth Kaul