Seniors rested from Challenger

This year8217;s NKP Salve Challenger Series is about to become the perfect stage for all the fringe players waiting...

This year8217;s NKP Salve Challenger Series is about to become the perfect stage for all the fringe players waiting for their Team India shirts as the BCCI today decided to rest most of the senior players, including the big three 8212; Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid 8212; citing the fact that they have a hectic calendar ahead them.

Virender Sehwag, who has not been selected even for the final two ODIs against Australia, has been named the skipper of India Blue while Mohammed Kaif and Parthiv Patel will lead India Red and Green, respectively.

Apart from the three, most of the other members of India8217;s current ODI team such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan have also been rested from the limited overs tournament to be held in Ahmedabad from October 25 to 28. The tournament will provide a chance for pacer Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina among others who are looking to regain their berths in the Indian team.

Though officially nothing has been stated as to why the seniors will be missing the Challenger, sources in the Board stated that it was due to the busy schedule which lies ahead for the players, and that it would be better if they were rested before the series against Pakistan and Australia. Pakistan are scheduled to visit India in November, December for three Tests and five one-dayers which will be followed by the Indian team8217;s tour of Australia.

TEAMS FOR CHALLENGER SERIES

India Red

Mohd Kaif C, Karan Goel, Gautam Gambhir, S Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Ravneet Ricky, Praveen Kumar, Mahesh Rawat, Pragyan Ojha, Sidharth Trivedi, Ishant Sharma, Penal Shah, Srikant Munde, Paresh Patel.

Coach: Lalchand Rajput

India Green

Parthiv Patel C, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Murali Kartik, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nair, Niranjan Behra, Iqbal Abdullah, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Gagandeep Singh, Anirudh Srikant, Satyajeet Parab.

Coach: Venkatesh Prasad

India Blue

Virender SehwagC, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Kaarthick, Suresh Raina, Neeraj Patel, Arjun Yadav, Joginder Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Amit Mishra, Yo Mahesh, Randeb Bose, Swapnil Asnodkar, Rakesh V Dhruv, Saurav Bandekar.

Coach: Praveen Amre

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Schedule: Oct 25 India Red vs India Blue Oct 26 India Green vs India Red Oct 27 India Green vs India Blue Oct 28 Final .