Mumbai, Nov 01: The national selectors today included left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra in place of Tamil Nadu speedster Lakshmipathy Balaji in the 14-member squad for the next two matches of the ongoing triangular cricket series.
Nehra, who was ruled out of the two-Test home series against New Zealand and the first three matches of the tri-series was the only change in the squad announced by cricket board secretary S K Nair here.
The Delhi seamer returned to competitive cricket after a gap of eight months since sustaining an ankle injury during the World Cup in South Africa earlier this year.
Nair said captain Sourav Ganguly, recovering from a minor surgery of an abscess on his left thigh, could be considered for the November 12 tri-series match between India and Australia to be held in Bangalore.
Nair said the Indian Test squad for the Australian tour, scheduled to begin later this month, would be announced in Bangalore on November 13.
The Indians are slated to play four Tests against Australia during the 82-day tour and also take part in a triangular series with Zimbabwe as the third team.
The team:
Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajit Agarkar, Parthiv Patel, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Hemang Badani, Murali Kartik. Bureau Report