India drop Chopra, Das; Sehwag, Kapoor added

JODHPUR, DECEMBER 8: The national selectors today dropped off-spinner Nikhil Chopra from the 14-member squad for the last two one-day inte...

JODHPUR, DECEMBER 8: The national selectors today dropped off-spinner Nikhil Chopra from the 14-member squad for the last two one-day internationals against Zimbabwe, following a directive from the BCCI president A C Muthaiah that “unless he is examined by the Board he should not be considered.”

Chopra, who did not get to play in the first three matches, and opener Shiv Sundar Das were replaced by young all-rounder Virender Sehwag and off-spinner Aashish Kapoor.

BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele said Chopra will face the Board’s anti-corruption investigator before being considered again.

Story continues below this ad

Das was included in the one-day squad after scoring his maiden Test century in the second Test at Nagpur, but is now suffering from a hamstring pull.

Chairman of selectors Chandu Borde said there was a debate over Yuvraj Singh before the young left-hander was retained. The middle-order batsman played a couple of rousing knocks on his debut in the ICC Knockout Trophy in Nairobi in October, but has scored only 33 runs in the three games of this series.

“We definitely discussed Yuvraj. He is a talented player. If we drop him he will lose confidence, but he needs to perform more consistently,” Borde said.

The fourth and fifth one-dayers will be played in Kanpur on December 11 and in Rajkot on December 14 before Zimbabwe return home after their 40-day Indian tour.

Story continues below this ad

Squad: Saurav Ganguly (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Hemang Badani, Virender Sehwag, Sridharan Sriram, Vijay Dahiya (wicketkeeper), Sunil Joshi, Aashish Kapoor, Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh Prasad, Ajit Agarkar, Reetinder Singh Sodhi.

SP leader Azam Khan walks out of jail after 23 months, hundreds of supporters welcome him

Cities1 hr ago

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who is facing multiple cases, walked out of the Sitapur jail today after 23 months. He was scheduled to be released early Tuesday morning, but it was delayed due to impending court proceedings. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Sitapur jail, waiting for the SP leader to walk out of prison.

View all shorts

Live Blog