BCCI appoints Dhoni as ODI captain

The 26-year-old Dhoni, captain at the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, will have a baptism of fire in the seven-match series against World Cup champions Australia starting on September 29.

8220;We thought he was the best man for the job,8221; chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar added.

The selectors also named the 15-man squad for the first three games.

Dhoni, who holds the record for the highest one-day score by a wicketkeeper 183 no, was thought to be in contention with former skipper Sachin Tendulkar but media reports suggested Tendulkar did not want to lead in one-dayers.

Dhoni has caught the imagination of cricket-mad India for his explosive batting and trademark long hair and was Dravid8217;s deputy in the one-day series in England, which the hosts won 4-3.

ODI Squad: Mahendra Dhoni captain, Yuvraj Singh vice-captain, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Romesh Pawar, Piyush Chawla, Rudra Pratap Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh.