(REUTERS) – Opener Gautam Gambhir’s stint as captain will continue for the entire one-day series against New Zealand after India decided yesterday to carry on testing their reserve strength ahead of next year’s World Cup. Paceman Zaheer Khan returned to the squad but batsman Suresh Raina and seamer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth will join the other seniors being rested for the remainder of the series which India lead 2-0.
The selectors continued to rest regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh ahead of the three-Test series against South Africa which starts on December 16 in Centurion.
Wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who made his ODI debut in Dhoni’s absence, will make way for Parthiv Patel for the last two matches against the Kiwis.
Middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma was also handed a place in the squad for the fourth and fifth ODIs in Bangalore and Chennai.
The third match against New Zealand is in Vadodara today.
Squad for third ODI: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, R. Vinay Kumar.
Squad for fourth and fifth ODIs: Gambhir (captain), Vijay, Kohli, Yuvraj, Tiwary, Rohit Sharma, Jadeja, Pathan, Parthiv Patel, Ashwin, Nehra, Munaf Patel, Zaheer, Kumar.